Here and there awareness is growing that man, far from being the overlord of all creation, is himself part of nature, subject to the same cosmic forces that control all other life. Man's future welfare and probably even his survival depend upon his learning to live in harmony, rather than in combat, with these forces. —Rachel Carson More about this quote Tags: awareness force creation nature control Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. —Aldo Leopold More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions. . . . Mud pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure. Fondness for the ground comes back to a man after he has run the round of pleasure and business, —Charles Dudley Warner More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow cycles of nature, is a help. —May Sarton More about this quote Tags: patience nature Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
My idea of being an outdoorsman is pulling the shade up on my window. After a few glasses of wine, I may even open the window, but never all the way. —John DeBellis More about this quote Tags: nature outdoors wine Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The powerful resonance of wilderness in my own mind — never having seen a wilderness or really understood what one was until I was in my twenties — leads me to suspect there is some kind of genetic circuit that lights up when a suburban animal is set down before a virgin forest. —David Rains Wallace More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The wild geese were passing over. . . . There was an infinite cold passion in their flight, like the passion of the universe, a proud mystery never to be solved. —Martha Ostenso More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Internet users, that blue screen of death you were looking at this morning? That's the sky. If you're still confused, look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow. —Stephen Colbert More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. —Lewis Thomas More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I am at two with nature. —Woody Allen More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling. —Henry David Thoreau More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We have always had reluctance to see a tract of land which is empty of men as anything but a void. The "waste howling wilderness" of Deuteronomy is typical. The Oxford Dictionary defines wilderness as wild or uncultivated land which is occupied "only" by wild animals. Places not used by us are "wastes." Areas not occupied by us are "desolate." Could the desolation be in the soul of man? —John A. Livingston More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves. —Frederick William Faber More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. —Albert Schweitzer More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. —Zora Neale Hurston More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email