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Quotes about nature

276 quotes from 143 people

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To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Nature (1836), Nature
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Journal (25 May 1843)
Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds.
Michael Faraday1791–1867Letter to John Tyndall (19 April 1851), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, letter 2411
- Science
We are not to tell Nature what she’s gotta be!
Richard Feynman1918–1988Lecture 1. “Photons: Corpuscles of Light” (1979) Sir Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures, University of Auckland.
- Science
That the vegetable creation should restore the air which is spoiled by the animal part of it, looks like a rational system, and seems to be of a piece with the rest.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790Letter to Joseph Priestley, printed in Priestley’s “Observations on Different Kinds of Air”, Philosophical Transactions, vol. 62 (1772)
- Science
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Robert Frost1874–1963Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923)In context
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost1874–1963Nothing Gold Can Stay (1923)In context
- Beauty
- Change
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
Robert Frost1874–1963Birches (1915)In context
- Happiness
Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983
We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983Presentation to U.S. Congressional Sub-Committee on World Game (1969)
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948
When it comes to climate change, I know innovation isn’t the only thing we need. But we cannot keep the earth livable without it. Techno-fixes are not sufficient, but they are necessary.
Bill Gatesborn 1955How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (2021)
- Science
Nature has mysterious infinities and imaginative power. It is always varying the productions it offers to us. The artist himself is one of nature’s means.
Paul Gauguin1848–1903The Writings of a Savage (1996), p. 39: ‘Huysmans and Redon’, (written in 1889, published 1953)
- Art
For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream in the same simple way as I dream about the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.
Vincent van Gogh1853–1890Letter to Theo, Monday, 9 or Tuesday, 10 July 1888, as quoted in Windows of the Soul: Experiencing God in New Ways‎ (1996) by Ken Gire, p. 91.
The true beauty of nature is her amplitude; she exists neither for nor because of us, and possesses a staying power that all our nuclear arsenals cannot threaten (much as we can easily destroy our puny selves).
Stephen Jay Gould1941–2002Bully for Brontosaurus (1991), Prologue, pp. 16–17