Nature Quotes - Page 28

• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beauty, Beautiful, Simple

  Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

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• All works, no matter what or by whom painted, are nothing but bagatelles and childish trifles... unless they are made and painted from life, and there can be nothing... better than to follow nature.

  Caravaggio

  Life, Art, Work

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• You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!

  Utah Phillips

  Inspirational, Cutting, Usa

  "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere". Album by Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco, October 15, 1996.

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• To speak of ‘limits to growth’ under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be ‘persuaded’ to limit growth than a human being can be ‘persuaded’ to stop breathing. Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.

  Murray Bookchin

  Warrior, Breathing, Growth

  "Remaking Society: Pathways to a Green Future". Book by Murray Bookchin, 1990.

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• Existence is movement. Action is movement. Existence is defined by the rhythm of forces in natural balance. (...) It is our appreciation for dance that allows us to see clearly the rhythms of nature and to take natural rhythm to a plane of well-organised art and culture.

  Rudolf von Laban

  Dance, Appreciation, Art

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• Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.

  Dick Guindon

  Writing, Thinking, Knowing

  "Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses" by Leslie Lamport, www.wired.com. January 25, 2013.

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• Not to sound too deep or weird, but I think that the times when you really appreciate surfing are the times you're really sort of becoming one with nature. Surfing's as raw of a sport as it gets.

  Kelly Slater

  Sports, Appreciation, Time

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• And to use something as elegant as a tree? Imagine this design assignment: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, makes complex sugars and foods, changes colors with the seasons, and self-replicates. and then why don't we knock that down and write on it?

  William McDonough

  Food, Writing, Color

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• Human behavior is subject to the same laws as any other natural phenomenon. Our customs, behaviors, and values are byproducts of our culture. No one is born with greed, prejudice, bigotry, patriotism and hatred; these are all learned behavior patterns. If the environment is unaltered, similar behavior will reoccur.

  Jacque Fresco

  Hate, Learning, Law

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• To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.

  Frans de Waal

  Science, Animal, Long

  "Are We in Anthropodenial?" by Frans de Waal, discovermagazine.com. July 1, 1997.

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• The trail compels you to know yourself and to be yourself, and puts you in harmony with the universe. It makes you glad to be living. It gives health, hope, and courage, and it extends that touch of nature which tends to make you kind.

  Enos Mills

  Inspirational, Hope, Courage

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• These birds and animals and fish cannot speak, but they can suffer, and our God who created them, knows their sufferings, and will hold him who causes them to suffer unnecessarily to answer for it. It is a sin against their Creator.

  George Q. Cannon

  God, Animal, Creating

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• Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization. I wonder if we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness the right to live on?

  Margaret Murie

  Life, Civilization, Rivers

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• 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

  Rocks, Water, Tree

  Thomas Cole (1980). “The collected essays and prose sketches”

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• The fleeting hour of life of those who love the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal. Always there will be the lonely ridge, the dancing beck, the silent forest; always there will be the exhilaration of the summits. These are for the seeking, and those who seek and find while there is still time will be blessed both in mind and body.

  Alfred Wainwright

  Inspirational, Life, Beauty

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• Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature.

  Carlo Petrini

  Food, Responsibility, Cooking

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• We feel the beauty of nature because we are part of nature and because we know that however much in our separate domains we abstract from the unity of Nature, this unity remains. Although we may deal with particulars, we return finally to the whole pattern woven out of these.

  Ernest Everett Just

  Beauty, Knowing, People

  Ernest Everett Just (1939). “The Biology of the Cell Surface”, Taylor & Francis

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• Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
  If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
  Would scarcely know that we were gone.

  Sara Teasdale

  Spring, Animal, Knowing

  Sara Teasdale (1920). “Flame and Shadow”, p.90, Рипол Классик

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• Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Time, Science, Decision

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• It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.

  Karl Marx

  Law, Different, Impossible

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• By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to water-falls, One aspect to the desert and the lake. It was her stern necessity : all things Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower, Song, picture, form, space, thought, and character Deceive us, seeming to be many things, And are but one.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Song, Wall, Flower

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Poems”, p.159, The Floating Press

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• Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Motivational, Adventure

  Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot (1989). “Conversations with Maya Angelou”

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• We inter-breath with the rain forests, we drink from the oceans. They are part of our own body.

  Nhat Hanh

  Rain, Ocean, Body

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• 

  It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.

  Ansel Adams

  Fighting, Government, Environmental

  "Playboy Interview: Ansel Adams". Interview with David Sheff, Playboy (p. 226), May 1, 1983.

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• What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

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