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Nature quotes

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“Nature will not be admired by proxy.” Winston Churchill, “The Story of the Malakand Field Force” - 1898

“Man selects only for his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends.” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

“The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature.” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“In Nature's infinite book of secrecy a little I can read.” William Shakespeare, “Antony and Cleopatra” - 1623

“Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.” William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus” - 1623

“If you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Nature will always maintain her rights, and prevail in the end over any abstract reasoning whatsoever.” David Hume, “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” - 1748

“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” John Muir, “The Mountains of California” - 1894

“Now if nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain, the inference must be that she has made all animals for the sake of man.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural...” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“The town itself is disagreeable; but then, all around, you find an inexpressible beauty of nature.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - 1774

“Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“We told each other that Nature was beautiful, even in her tears.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men in a Boat” - 1889

“Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.” Leonardo da Vinci, “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” - 1478 – 1519

“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness which Nature has kindly placed within our reach.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the nature of things.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“Indeed, the law of nature teaches us to kill our neighbour, and such is the practice all over the world.” Voltaire, “Candide” - 1759

“We should turn resolutely towards Nature.” Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot” - 1953

“There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“Nature offers simply the germs which education is to develop and perfect.” John Dewey, “Democracy and Education” - 1916

“There is no cause from whose nature some effect does not follow.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat's Cradle” - 1963

“The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are always inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” - 1836

“Revenge may be wicked, but it's natural” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.” John Muir, “The Yosemite” - 1912

“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

“Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water!” Terry Pratchett, “Small Gods” - 1992

“The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“A love of nature keeps no factories busy.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“Nature's a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.” Carl Sagan, “Contact” - 1985

“Nature confutes the sceptics, and reason confutes the dogmatists.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“I think he'll be to Rome as is the osprey to the fish, who takes it by sovereignty of nature.” William Shakespeare, “Coriolanus” - 1623

“O, why should nature build so foul a den, unless the gods delight in tragedies?” William Shakespeare, “Titus Andronicus” - 1594

“Everything kills everything else in some way.” Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea” - 1952

“It must be very peaceful, he thought, to lie and slumber and dream forever and ever, with the wind whispering through the trees and caressing the grass and the flowers over the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve about, ever any more.” Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” - 1876

“Nature that made thee, with herself at strife, Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.” William Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis” - 1593

“Although Oliver had been brought up by philosophers, he was not theoretically acquainted with the beautiful axiom that self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Charles Dickens, “Oliver Twist” - 1838

“But Natural Selection, we shall hereafter see, is a power incessantly ready for action, and is as immeasurably superior to man's feeble efforts, as the works of Nature are to those of Art.” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

Related topics

beauty man law life world reason God stars time happiness understanding revenge killing justice morning invention evil philosophy freedom humanity

Related authors

John Muir (9)
William Shakespeare (6)
Blaise Pascal (5)
Henry David Thoreau (4)
Jack London (4)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (3)
Charles Darwin (3)
Jules Verne (3)
Carl Sagan (3)
Marcus Aurelius (3)
Charlotte Brontë (2)
Arthur Conan Doyle (2)
David Hume (2)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2)
Karl Marx (2)
Anne Frank (2)
Pope Francis (2)
Baruch Spinoza (2)
Jane Austen (1)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1)

Related sources

The Mountains of California (5)
Pensées (5)
On The Origin of Species (3)
Stickeen (3)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (3)
Meditations (3)
Walden (3)
Nature (3)
Coriolanus (2)
Jane Eyre (2)
White Fang (2)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (2)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (2)
Das Kapital (2)
The Diary of a Young Girl (2)
Laudato si' (2)
Ethics (2)
The Demon-Haunted World (2)
The Call of the Wild (2)
As You Like It (1)