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“Happy will be the men who, having the power and the love and the benevolent forecast to [create a park], will do it. They will not be forgotten. The trees and their lovers will sing their praises, and generations yet unborn will rise up and call them blessed.”
John Muir (1838–1914) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Basin of the Columbia River" in Picturesque California (1888-1890); reprinted in Steep Trails (1918), chapter 22
“The battle we have fought, and are still fighting, for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it. … So we must count on watching and striving for these trees, and should always be glad to find anything so surely good and noble to strive for.”
John Muir (1838–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My fire was in all its glory about midnight, and, having made a bark shed to shelter me from the rain and partially dry my clothing, I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers.”
John Muir (1838–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Travels in Alaska (1915), chapter 2: Alexander Archipelago and the Home I Found in Alaska
“Government protection should be thrown around every wild grove and forest on the mountains, as it is around every private orchard, and the trees in public parks. To say nothing of their value as fountains of timber, they are worth infinitely more than all the gardens and parks of towns.”
John Muir (1838–1914) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1895, pages 350-351
“The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always right.”
John Muir (1838–1914) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: about 1900, page 429
“Ask the world to reveal its quietude — not the silence of machines when they are still, but the true quiet by which birdsongs, trees, bellworts, snails, clouds, storms become what they are, and are nothing else.”
Wendell Berry (1934–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sit and be still until in the time of no rain you hear beneath the dry wind's commotion in the trees the sound of flowing water among the rocks, a stream unheard before, and you are where breathing is prayer.”
Wendell Berry (1934–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't tell you what hotel I'm stayin' in, but there are 2 trees involved. They said "Let's call this hotel 'Something Tree'". So they had a meeting, it was... It was quite short. "How 'bout 'Tree'?" "No." "'Double Tree'?" "Hell, yeah! Meeting adjourned!" "I had my heart set on 'Quadruple Tree'" "Well, we were almost there!”
Mitch Hedberg (1968–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love this country. I actually love this state. This feels good being back in Michigan. Um, you know the trees are the right height. The, uh, the streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually.”
Mitt Romney (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you love me, be patient. Look at the trees. Are they in a hurry to ripen their fruit?”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" (1934), st. 1
“And he said "God, make it a dream!" as he rode his last ride down. And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars, clipped off thirteen telephone poles, hit two houses, bruised eight trees, and Blue-Crossed seven people. it was then he lost his head, not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.”
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I looked at my hands, to see if I was de same person now I was free. Dere was such a glory over everything, de sun came like gold trou de trees, and over de fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
Jack Handey (born 1949) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Deep Thoughts: Inspiration for the Uninspired (1992), Berkley Books,
“Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees. "Do you believe?" he cried.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies. They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are just little sillies who are not sure what they are.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Long ago we parted,” said the slight, still man of the Fiia. “Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not. Think of the sunlight and the grass and the trees that bear fruit, Semley; think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What harm have the trees done them?” he said. “Must they punish the grass for their own faults? Men are savages, who would set a land afire because they have a quarrel with other men.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“so immagine what you want and hold onto that thought cause thats as close as it will ever come and believe you're were you're are keep acting out the part but at the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away and you'll be standing alone in a blank, blank space”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The guns spell money's ultimate reason In letters of lead on the spring hillside. But the boy lying dead under the olive trees Was too young and too silly To have been notable to their important eye. He was a better target for a kiss.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under the olive trees, from the ground Grows this flower, which is a wound. It is easier to ignore Than the heroes' sunset fire Of death plunged in their willed desire Raging with flags on the world's shore.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”
Margaret Atwood (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler. … The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa.”
Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What a wonderful and amazing Scheme have we here of the magnificent Vastness of the Universe! So many Suns, so many Earths, and every one of them stock’d with so many Herbs, Trees and Animals, and adorn’d with so many Seas and Mountains! And how must our wonder and admiration be encreased when we consider the prodigious distance and multitude of the Stars?”
Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) said by 1695 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“there were these people on the ground, they were reaching up their arms and trying to pull me down but they couldn't do it. I felt like pissing on them. they were so jealous. all they had to do was to work their way slowly up to it as I had done. such people think success grows on trees. you and I, we know better.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human race, my intuition tells me, is not outside the cosmic process and is not an accident. It is as much a part of the universe as the trees, the mountains, the aurora, and the stars.”
Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They moved up between black trees, trip-me stumps, and small boulders. Everything in this world seemed disordered, messed up. Crazy people. Who started all this. For what? The nuclear blast hadn't reached his hood in East L.A. But the radiation did. He'd been on Okinawa. His family had been home. Now the Jihadis were going to get their shit handed to them.”
Ralph Peters (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I write "paradise" I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes — disease and death and the rotting of flesh.”
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the priest went in, he stopped short at the sight of this defamation of God's holy place, and dared not serve the requiem on such a spot. And so the church was left forever, with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, was overgrown with forest trees, roots, rough grass and wild thorns, and no one can now find the way to it.”
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) first seen 1835 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Viy" (1835)
“Have you seen the land living by the breeze? Can you understand the lights upon the trees? Tell me all that you may know Show me what you have to show Tell us all today if you know the way to blue...”
Nick Drake (1948–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary. The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.”
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.”
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trees must form ranks to keep the giant with seven-league boots from passing! It is the time of mobilization, of marching together, and we must go forward in close ranks, like silver in the veins of the Andes.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Difference is the foundation of those buildings, the pilings beneath the docks, tangled in the roots of the trees. Half the place was built on it. The other half couldn’t live without it. But to talk about it in public reveals you to be ill-mannered and vulgar.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to know but I can't see are you up there. I don't have a lot of strength now. The sky is stripped. I am too weak to write much. But I still hear them walking in the trees; not speaking. Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland and into the hills, I have come to”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the way I stood a moment looking out across the marshes with tall cattails, a patch of water, more marsh, then the woods with a few birch trees shining white at the edge on beyond. In the darkness it all looked just like I felt. Wet and swampy and gloomy, very gloomy. In the morning I painted it. My memory of it is that it was probably my best painting that summer..”
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About the summer of Art Students League, New York 1913/14
“I pass you my Poem! — to tell you we are all vulnerable — the midget, the Mighty, the richest, the poor. Men, women, children, and trees. I am vulnerable.”
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The leaves of these [larch] trees are like those of the pine; timber from them comes in long lengths, is as easily wrought in joiner's work as is the clearwood of fir, and contains a liquid resin, of the color of Attic honey, which is good for consumptives.”
Vitruvius (80–15 BC) said by 15 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unfortunately sometimes I have to fly, but I don't fly nearly as much as I did, because of my carbon footprint, and I plant a lot of trees. [Interviewer: Do you fly economy, to... reduce your carbon footprint?] I bloody don't, no!”
Emma Thompson (born 1959) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Extinction Rebellion protest, 19 April 2019
“We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. We cut down over 15 billion trees each year. By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, we've reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%.”
David Attenborough (born 1926) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me tell you what I'm looking for in a fuckin' tree. I'm looking for a tree that you can tell is alive even if you don't know shit about trees.”
Ron White (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is already woven cannot be undone. It will not make the trees grow again for you to bring the building down on our heads.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before him, numberless lovers smiled and talked. And death was observed with sudden cries, And birth with laughter and pain. And the trees grew taller and blacker against the skies And night came down again.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The boots of the men clump On the boards of the bridge. The first white wall of the village Rises through fruit-trees. Of what was it I was thinking? So the meaning escapes.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps The truth depends on a walk around a lake,A composing as the body tires, a stop To see hepatica, a stop to watch A definition growing certain andA wait within that certainty, a rest In the swags of pine-trees bordering the lake. Perhaps there are times of inherent excellence.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On a blue island in a sky-wide water The wild orange trees continued to bloom and to bear, Long after the planter’s death.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One afternoon in early January, the weather showed a lack of character. There was no frost nor wind: the trees in the garden did not stir.”
Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Report On Probability A (1968)
“In Mrs. Swinton's garden, it was always summer. The lovely almond trees stood about it in perpetual leaf. Monica Swinton plucked a saffron-colored rose and showed it to David.”
Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source