Nature quotes
3.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside nature — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people."
"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy."
"He who knows how to be aggressive, and yet remains patient, becomes a receptacle for all of Nature's lessons."
"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again."
"Nature seemed to me full of wonders, and I wanted to steep myself in them. Every stone, every plant, every single thing seemed alive and indescribably marvelous. I immersed myself in nature, crawled, as it were, into the very essence of nature and away from the whole human world."
"Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature."
"How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew!"
"And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."
"Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price."
"Nature: a place where birds fly around uncooked"
"There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature."
"The wilderness is near as well as dear to every man. Even the oldest villages are indebted to the border of wild wood which surrounds them, more than to the gardens of men. There is something indescribably inspiriting and beautiful in the aspect of the forest skirting and occasionally jutting into the midst of new towns, which, like the sand-heaps of fresh fox-burrows, have sprung up in their midst. The very uprightness of the pines and maples asserts the ancient rectitude and vigor of nature. Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams."
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness."
"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man."
"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks."
"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."
"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden."
"In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires."
"A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine."
