- All nature ... is a respiration
- Of the Spirit of God, who, in breathing hereafter
- Will inhale it into his bosom again,
- So that nothing but God alone will remain.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, The Golden Legend
We live in the midst of [Nature] and are strangers. She speaks to us unceasingly and betrays not her secret.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Nature has no remorse.
It were happy if we studied Nature more in natural things; and acted according to Nature; whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable.
WILLIAM PENN, Some Fruits of Solitude
Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.
RICHARD FEYNMAN, The Character of Physical Law
[Nature] is all things. She rewards herself and punishes herself; and in herself rejoices and is distressed. She is rough and gentle, loving and terrible, powerless and almighty. In her everything is always present. Past or Future she knows not. The Present is her Eternity.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Mankind, which has always been a part of nature, has reached a point where it is too much for nature to accommodate.
KOBO ABE, The Green Stockings
Use Nature well and she will recompense thee well.
[Nature] spurts forth her creatures out of nothing, and tells them not whence they come and whither they go. They have only to go their way: she knows the path.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
In the book of Nature, the Divine Teacher speaks.
WELLINS CALCOTT, Thoughts Moral and Divine
All nature is full of God. He is enthroned in Light: he creates darkness: he hath his way in the whirlwind, fendeth abroad his lightnings, giveth snow like wool, scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes, and casteth forth his ice like morsels! Who can stand before his cold? Who can thunder with a voice like God? It is He who distils the rain from his bottles, who opens the bubbling fountains, who covers the fields with grass, and the hills with flocks, who spins out the fleecy air, and spreads forth the liquid plains, who refreshes us with his wings, lights us with the sun, and entertains us with his table, richly furnish'd with all the dainty of heaven.
WELLINS CALCOTT, Thoughts Moral and Divine
- Nature with her wealth of birds and flowers,
- Has in her heart a place for every weed;
- For her quick eyes require no microscope
- To note the varied wonders and delights
- That the Creator's humblest works possess.
MARTHA LAVINIA HOFFMAN, "Nature"
Nature looks with an equal smile on all.
The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature, — were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Table-Talk
Nature isn't just something that pushes up through the sidewalk cracks and keeps the farmers trapped in the sticks but is an elixir, a luxury that can be bought and fenced off and kept pure for the more fortunate, in an impure age.
JOHN UPDIKE, Rabbit is Rich
There are moments when Nature reveals the passion hidden beneath the careless calm of her ordinary moods--violent spring flashing white on almond-blossom through the purple clouds; a snowy, moonlit peak, with its single star, soaring up to the passionate blue; or against the flames of sunset, an old yew-tree standing dark guardian of some fiery secret.
JOHN GALSWORTHY, The Forsyte Saga
Nature abhors a vacuum.
- Away, away, from men and towns,
- To the wild wood and the downs —
- To the silent wilderness
- Where the soul need not repress
- Its music lest it should not find
- An echo in another’s mind.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, "To Jane: The Invitation"
- Let nothing be called natural
- In an age of bloody confusion,
- Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
- And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
- Be held unalterable!
BERTOLT BRECHT, The Exception and the Rule
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