Nature quotes
3.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside nature — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"I suppose an entire cabinet of shells would be an expression of the whole human mind; a Flora of the whole globe would be so likewise, or a history of beasts; or a painting of all the aspects of the clouds. Everything is significant."
"Nature is thoroughly mediate. It is made to serve. It receives the dominion of man as meekly as the ass on which the Saviour rode.It offers all its kingdoms to man as the raw material which he may mould into what is useful. Man is never weary of working it up."
"The wheels and springs of man are all set to the hypothesis of the permanence of nature. We are not built like a ship to be tossed, but like a house to stand."
"The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship."
"All men are poets at heart. They serve nature for bread, but her loveliness overcomes them sometimes."
"it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower."
"There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love."
"Out from the heart of Nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old."
"The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning."
"To the birds and trees he talks: Caesar of his leafy Rome, There the poet is at home."
"The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. The simplicity of nature is not that which may be easily read but is inexhaustible. The last analysis can no wise be made."
"This knot of nature is so well tied that nobody was ever cunning enough to find the two ends."
"Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast."
"The noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God."
"Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant."
"In the vaunted works of Art, The master-stroke is Nature's part."
"As Arkwright and Whitney were the demi-gods of cotton, so prolific Time will yet bring an inventor to every plant. There is not a property in nature but a mind is born to seek and find it."
"Science, Nature,-O, I've yearned to open some page."
"It is very odd that Nature should be so unscrupulous. She is no saint . . ."
"I thought as I rode in the cold pleasant light of Sunday morning how silent & passive nature offers, every morn, her wealth to man; she is immensely rich, he is welcome to her entire goods, which he speaks no word, only leaves over doors ajar, hall, store room, & cellar. He may do as he will: if he takes her hint & uses her goods, she speaks no word; if he blunders & starves, she says nothing."
