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A Selection of Environmental Inspiration Quotes
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This world is so beautiful that I can hardly believe it exists Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature is never the
same, even from day to day or even from hour to hour Clarence Dutton If you love it enough,
anything will talk to you George Washington Carver For observing nature,
the best pace is a snails pace Edwin Way Teale To get close to an
animal, speak softly and tell it you mean it no harm. Tell the animal how much
you admire it. It won’’ be able to understand your words but it will understand
your actions. Joseph Cornell I’ve been in such a
hurry all my life; I’ve never taken time to notice nature Anonymous Nothing is so contagious
as enthusiasm… it is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no
victories without it. Bulwer Lytton A man knocks on a tree Ivor Cutler We mistakenly admire the
person who has toured the greater wonders of the world, and ignore those that
seek out the little pockets of nature. Yet those that look close possess a
greater understanding of the oneness of nature; when they do finally face the
grand and beautiful panoramas they know them in a much deeper way. They full
understand the connection between the grandest mountain and the smallest blade
of grass, and how each is dependant upon, and a reflection of, the other. Tom Brown Great things are done
when men and mountains meet. William Blake The power of the view
from Fitz Roy comes from within us. It would not be the same from an aeroplane
or if we had ridden to the summit in a gondola. Thought and vision are
intertwined, we feel a strong connection between what is before our eyes and the
knowledge of our inner selves that we have gained by pursuing the limits of
endurance. Galen Rowell Walk away quietly in any
direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer… Climb the mountains and get
their good tidings. Natures peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into
trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their
energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. John Muir To me a lush carpet of
pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian
rug. Helen Keller There is nothing like
walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like a piece of music;
it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast. Paul Scott Mowrer Climb the mountains and
get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into
trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their
energy, while cares will drop off like falling leaves. John Muir April hath put a spirit
of youth in everything. William Shakespeare Those who contemplate
the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as
life lasts. Rachel Carson Spring is when you feel
like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. Doug Larson For me, a landscape does
not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but
the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary
continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects
their true value. Claude Monet If a June night could
talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. Bern Williams Autumn is a second
spring when every leaf is a flower. Albert Camus October’s poplars are
flaming torches lighting the way to winter. Nova Bair If we do not permit the
Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either. Joseph Woodkrutch In the end we will
conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will
understand only what we have been taught. Baba Dioum A true conservationist
is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from
his children. Audobon There is nothing in
which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and
yet leave a landscape as it was before. Robert Lynd Over the long haul of
life on this planet, it is the ecologists, and not the bookkeepers of business,
who are the ultimate accountants. Stewart Udall Water is the driving
force of all nature. Leonardo Da Vinci We abuse the land
because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a
community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold If we do not permit the
Earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either. Joseph Woodkrutch When one tugs at a
single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. John Muir Man shapes himself
through decisions that shape his environment. Rene Dubos Till now man has been up
against Nature, from now on he will be up against his own nature. Dennis Gabor Those who contemplate
the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as
life lasts. Rachel Carson It is not clear that
intelligence has any long-term survival value. Stephen Hawking Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the
only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead To make an apple pie
from scratch, we must first invent the universe. Carl Sagan We are an impossibility
in an impossible universe. Ray Bradbury To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin
and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase it’s
usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very
prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. Theodore Roosevelt One fancies a heart like
our own must be beating in every crystal and cell. No wonder when we consider we
all have the same Father and Mother John Muir To expand your
consciousness, concentrate on the distances of your environment J Donald Walters Let my mind become
silent, and my thoughts come to rest. I want to be all that is before me. In
self-forgetfulness, I become everything. Joseph Cornell We are in the mountains,
and the mountains are in us... Wonderful how completely everything in wild
nature fits into us... The sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not
past, but through us... John Muir The birds have vanished
in the sky, and now the last clouds drain away. We sit together, the mountain
and I until only the mountain remains. Li Po No man is an island,
entire of himself; every man is a piece of the continent John Donne It may be then that some
little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf
and bloom and fill with singing birds Black Elk I wandered lonely as a
cloud William Wordsworth Discover the harmony
within you and you will find the harmony that runs through nature Joseph Cornell We abuse land because we
regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to
which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold The care of rivers is
not a question of rivers, but of the human heart Tanaka Shozo There is more to life
than increasing its speed Ghandi |
The sun, with all those
planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of
grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. Galileo If I wished to see a
mountain or other scenery under the most favourable auspices, I would go to it
in foul weather, so as to be there when it cleared up; we are then in the most
suitable mood, and nature is most fresh and inspiring. Henry David
Thoreau When we try to pick out
anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir In every walk with
nature one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir Come to the woods, for
here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Here grow
the wallflower and the violet. The squirrel will come and sit upon your knee,
the lockcock will wake you in the morning. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill. Of
all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the
mountains. John Muir How many mouths Nature
has to fill, how many neighbours we have, how little we know about them and how
seldom we get in each other’s way! John Muir Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for
granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question
whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural,
wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more
important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as
inalienable as free speech. Aldo Leopold Our village life would
stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround
it. Henry David Thoreau Hope and the future for
me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the
impervious and quaking swamps. Henry David Thoreau With our
technologies—ones of incalculable power: earth-restoring, planet preserving—we
can rediscover an intimacy, a mutuality with the natural world, that is not
primitive (though based in part on fear), but knowing. It might even be possible
to relearn a life of awe. And inhabit the landscape without violation. With the
least violation. Janet Kauffman Growth for the sake of
growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Edward Abbey It was not that the
jagged precipices were lofty, that the encircling woods were the dimmest shade,
or that the waters were profoundly deep; but that over all, rocks, wood, and
water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the
soul to its inmost depths. Thomas Cole On the Passenger Pigeon:
Persons unacquainted with these birds might naturally conclude that such
dreadful havoc would soon put an end to the species. But I have satisfied
myself, by long observation, that nothing but the gradual diminution of our
forests can accomplish their decrease. John James Audubon To speak truly, few
adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they
have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but
shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose
inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has
retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson In the presence of
nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Ralph Waldo Emerson Our moral and ethical
responsibility is to protect other species in the spirit of husbandry rather
than destroy them in and attitude of conquest. Charles Southwick Let us praise the noble
turkey vulture: No one envies him; he harms nobody; and he contemplates our
world from a most serene and noble height. Edward Abbey Wildness can be a way of
reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of
hope. Wallace Stenger There are some who
frankly and boldly advocate the eradication of the last remnants of wilderness
and the complete subjugation of nature to the requirements of—not man—but
industry. This is a courageous view, admirable in its simplicity and power, and
with the weight of all modern history behind it. It is also quite insane. I
cannot attempt to deal with it here. Edward Abbey No more cars in national
parks. Let the people walk. Or ride horses, bicycles, mules, wild
pigs—anything—but keep the automobiles and the motorcycles and all their
motorised relatives out. We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into
cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms
and the other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks with
the same deference, for they, too, are holy places. Edward Abbey Against stupidity, even
the Gods are powerless. Goete The biggest problem in
the world could have been solved when it was small. Lao-tzu When the well is dry, we
know the worth of water. Benjamin Franklin Reading about nature is
fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn
more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God. George Washington Carver And so when we talk
about intangible values remember that they cannot be separated from the others.
The conservation of waters, forests, soils, and wildlife are all involved with
the conservation of the human spirit. The goal we all strive toward is
happiness, contentment, the dignity of the individual, and the good life. This
goal will elude us forever if we forget the importance of the intangibles. Sigurd F. Olson Learning is not
compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming So we will consider your
offer to buy our land. Chief Seattle
To see a World in a
grain of sand, William Blake Now, it never seems to
occur to these far-seeing teachers that Nature’s object in making animals and
plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them, not the
creation of all for the happiness of one. Why should man value himself as more
than a small part of the one great unit of creation? John Muir Love the world as your
own self, then you can truly care for all things Lao Tsu Until he extends the
circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace Albert Schweitzer Though we travel the
world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not Ralph Waldo Emerson Man is not himself
only... he is all that he sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources...
He is the land, the lift of the mountain lines, the reach of the valleys. Mary Austin Holy Earth Mother; the
trees and all nature are witness of your thoughts and deeds Winnebago Indians The hours when the mind
is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we readily live... Robert Jefferies Contemplate beauty in
the world around you, and you yourself will become beautiful J Donald Walters There are two ways to
live: one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as if everything is Albert Einstein The real voyage of
discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes Marcel Proust Wisdom begins with
wonder Socrates You cannot perceive
beauty but with a serene mind Henry David Thoreau Wisdom does not inspect,
but behold Henry David Thoreau With beauty before me,
May I walk Navajo Indians Love the world as you
own self, then you can truly care for all things Lao Tsu Let other folk make
money faster, William Barnes |