Quotes about nature
page 21

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Sarah Dessen photo
Lionel Shriver photo

“Men are natural warriors, but a woman in battle is truly bloodthirsty”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Book of Shadows

Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Cassandra Clare photo
John Burroughs photo

“I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

Source: The Summit of the Years

Napoleon Hill photo
Erica Jong photo
Baruch Spinoza photo
George Gordon Byron photo

“I love not man the less, but nature more”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Wendell Berry photo

“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Part of an endorsement statement for The Dying of the Trees (1997) by Charles E. Little http://www.ecobooks.com/books/dying.htm.

John Updike photo

“Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Source: Self-Consciousness : Memoirs (1989), Ch. 3

Lev Grossman photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Marcus Aurelius photo

“Man is a being of varied, manifold and inconstant nature. And woman, by God, is a match for him.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Disorderly Knights

Doris Lessing photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
John Milton photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Jim Morrison photo
Diablo Cody photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788) PTJ, 13:208-9 http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/natural-progress-things-quotation
1780s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Anne Rice photo
Jeffrey Eugenides photo
John Flanagan photo
Walt Whitman photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Scott Westerfeld photo

“Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Source: The Uglies Trilogy

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Umberto Eco photo
Albert Einstein photo
Confucius photo

“By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

(zh-TW) 性相近也、習相遠也。子曰、唯上知與下愚不移。 note: The Analects, Chapter I, Other chapters

Source: Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Confucius / Quotes / The Analects / Chapter I / Other chapters

Pat Conroy photo
Erich Fromm photo
Brandon Sanderson photo
David Nicholls photo
Karen Marie Moning photo
Ingrid Bergman photo

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”

Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) Film actress from Sweden

"Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994

Will Shortz photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Shannon Hale photo
George Lucas photo

“They were at the wrong place at the wrong time naturally they became heroes”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

Source: A New Hope

Woody Allen photo

“I love nature, I just don't want to get any of it on me.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Larry Niven photo

“3) Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.”

Larry Niven (1938) American writer

Niven's Laws

Bob Dylan photo
William Wordsworth photo

“For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.”

Stanza 3.
Source: Lyrical Ballads (1798–1800), Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (1798), Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Context: That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompence. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.

Don DeLillo photo

“All plots tend to move deathwards. This is the nature of plots.”

Source: White Noise (1984), Ch. 6

George Bernard Shaw photo

“Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act II; sometimes paraphrased as: The customs of your tribe are not laws of nature.
1890s, Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)
Variant: Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
Context: THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister.
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How!
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

Cornelia Funke photo
Sogyal Rinpoche photo
Philip Pullman photo

“Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.”

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 15 : Bloodmoss
Context: "You fought for the knife?"
"Yes, but — "
"Then you're a warrior. That's what you are. Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature."
Will knew that the man was speaking the truth. But it wasn't a welcome truth. It was heavy and painful. The man seemed to know that, because he let Will bow his head before he spoke again.
"There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
"And now those two powers are lining up for battle. And each of them wants that knife of yours more than anything else. You have to choose, boy. We've been guided here, both of us — you with the knife, and me to tell you about it."

Salman Rushdie photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo
David Levithan photo
Jane Austen photo
Flannery O’Connor photo
Barbara Kingsolver photo

“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

Source: Homeland and Other Stories

Jonathan Edwards photo
Thomas Henry Huxley photo

“Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads or you shall learn nothing.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

1860s, Reply to Charles Kingsley (1860)
Context: Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
Context: Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.

Anatole France photo

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”

L'art d'enseigner n'est que l'art d'éveiller la curiosité des jeunes âmes pour la satisfaire ensuite.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

Pythagoras photo

“Most men and women, by birth or nature, lack the means to advance in wealth and power, but all have the ability to advance in knowledge.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in The Golden Ratio (2002) by Mario Livio

Ram Dass photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“The word of Mohammad is a voice direct from nature's own heart - all else is wind in comparison.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
Ayn Rand photo
Agatha Christie photo
Sean O`Casey photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Aldous Huxley photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Source: Existentialism and Human Emotions

Michel De Montaigne photo
Richard Dawkins photo
John Calvin photo
Marcus Aurelius photo

“Love is so exquisitely elusive. It cannot be bought, cannot be badgered, cannot be hijacked. It is available only in one rare form: as the natural response of a healthy mind and healthy heart.”

[Original goodness: On the beatitudes of the sermon on the mount, Easwaran, Eknath, w:Eknath Easwaran, 1996, Nilgiri Press, Tomales, CA, 0915132923, http://books.google.com/books?id=EVMJXI4pJFMC&pg=PT155&lpg=PT155&dq=%22Love+is+so+exquisitely+elusive.+It+cannot+be+bought,+cannot+be+badgered,+cannot+be+hijacked.+It+is+available+only+in+one+rare+form:+as+the+natural+response+of+a+healthy+mind+and+healthy+heart.+%22+eknath+easwaran&source=bl&ots=p9woVsJ6yV&sig=tbv5qJjAiu6YNqt8luZX4RM0rFg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tdSdT7f9IOi9iwLF5NhU&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false] (p. 155) (book originally published 1989: p. 131)

“You are where you are and what you are because of yourself, nothing else. Nature is neutral. Nature doesn't care. If you do what other successful people do, you will enjoy the same results and rewards that they do. And if you don't, you won't.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals

William James photo
Murray Bookchin photo
Scott Westerfeld photo
Bell Hooks photo
Carl Sagan photo

“Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Carl Sagan, author interview
PT Staff
Psychology Today
1996
January
01
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/carl-sagan?page=3

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Richard Cobden photo