Roots quotes
1.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside roots — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"A tree uses what comes its way to nurture itself. By sinking its roots deeply into the earth, by accepting the rain that flows towards it, by reaching out to the sun, the tree perfects its character and becomes great. ... Absorb, absorb, absorb. That is the secret of the tree."
"Lessons, however, that enter the soul against its will never grow roots and will never be preserved inside it."
"How can money be the root of all evil when shopping is the cure for all sadness?"
"The less we understand of what our fathers and forefathers sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the spirit of gravity."
"What we try to do as Elders is help those who are trying to change their own societies and communities for the better. We hope that by supporting the good work that is being done, especially at the grass roots, we can help to alleviate the suffering of human beings. That is our core mission - to draw attention to the impact that conflict, injustice and poverty have on ordinary people."
"He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger... Men of superior mind busy themselves first getting at the root of things; when they succeed, the right course is open to them."
"All sorrow has its root in man's inability to sit quiet in a room by himself."
"The earth is rocky and full of roots; it's clay, and it seems doomed and polluted, but you dig little holes for the ugly shriveled bulbs, throw in a handful of poppy seeds, and cover it all over, and you know you'll never see it again - it's death and clay and shrivel, and your hands are nicked from the rocks, your nails black with soil."
"The ego is like the root of a banyan tree, you think you have removed it all then one fine morning you see a sprout flourishing again."
"I'm trying to change the root of funk, trying to make it more progressive, more melodic and more lyrically structured."
"When your heart's gratitude comes to the fore, when you become all gratitude, this gratitude is like a flow, a flow of consciousness. When your consciousness is flowing, feel that this gratitude-flow is like a river that is watering the root of the tree and the tree itself. It is always through gratitude that your consciousness-river will grow and water the perfection-tree inside you."
"Silence is the root of everything. If you spiral into its void a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear."
"The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars."
"True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long."
"Fixedness of purpose is the root of all successful efforts."
"The word 'radical' derives from the Latin word for root. Therefore, if you want to get to the root of anything you must be radical. It is no accident that the word has now been totally demonized."
"The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don't have PhDs."
"You are good when you strive to give of yourself. Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself. For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast. Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, 'Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.' For to the fruit giving is a need as receiving is a need to the root."
"Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth."
"Ignorance: the root of all evil."
