Quotes about nature
page 21
“Funny how the nature of a normal day is the first memory to fade.”
Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin
“Men are natural warriors, but a woman in battle is truly bloodthirsty”
Source: Book of Shadows
Source: The Nature of the Physical World
Source: Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success
“The beauty of nature has been one of the great inspirations in my life.”
“I love not man the less, but nature more”
Part of an endorsement statement for The Dying of the Trees (1997) by Charles E. Little http://www.ecobooks.com/books/dying.htm.
“Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”
Source: Self-Consciousness : Memoirs (1989), Ch. 3
“Man is a being of varied, manifold and inconstant nature. And woman, by God, is a match for him.”
Source: The Disorderly Knights
Kéramos http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap22.html, st. 29.
Source: Magic Bites
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
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
Source: Red Dragon
“Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.”
Source: The Uglies Trilogy
1940s, Science and Religion (1941)
“By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”
(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
“A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.”
Source: The Prince of Tides
“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
"Webster's Electronic Quotebase," ed. Keith Mohler, 1994
“As human beings, we have a natural compulsion to fill empty spaces.”
Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
“They were at the wrong place at the wrong time naturally they became heroes”
Source: A New Hope
“I love nature, I just don't want to get any of it on me.”
“3) Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.”
Niven's Laws
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.
Source: Roomies
Source: North of Beautiful
“All plots tend to move deathwards. This is the nature of plots.”
Source: White Noise (1984), Ch. 6
“Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!”
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.
“He wants to be grown-up. How different dreams can be! Nature will soon grant your wish.”
Source: The Thief Lord
“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."
“We were language's magpies by nature, stealing whatever sounded bright and shiny.”
Source: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.”
Source: Homeland and Other Stories
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.
As quoted in The Golden Ratio (2002) by Mario Livio
“The word of Mohammad is a voice direct from nature's own heart - all else is wind in comparison.”
“That's what being eccentric means--being natural.”
“There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.”
Source: Existentialism and Human Emotions
“Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”
[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)
Source: Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals
Source: Communion: The Female Search for Love
Carl Sagan, author interview
PT Staff
Psychology Today
1996
January
01
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/carl-sagan?page=3
Travis Parker, Proloque, p. 3
2000s, The Choice (2007)
Letter to W. Tait (17 August 1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905), p. 127.
1830s