Famous quotes

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“You'd never think, to look at you'd never think to look at that building there, is where there used to be trees. You'd never think it, would you? You'd never think it, would you? That building there is where there used to be trees. That building there is where there... That building there is where there.. That building there is where there... used to be fields.”
Gilbert O'Sullivan (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter if you cut off their branches, or they are struck by lightning, or if they rot due to lack of care, they will accept it and forgive. That’s the way trees are. Animals can move around, but a tree has to stay alive where it stands. Feeling sorry for trees or wanting to take care of them is something that only humans do.”
Konami Tsukamoto (born 1949) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gaia Press Article - A tree doctor linking the hearts of trees and humans - 1 Mar 2016 - Archive
“Everyday when we look after the trees, they look after us, but this trees and the life-saving fruit they bear will not survive on a 2.7 degree celsius warmer planet.”
Elizabeth Wathuti (born 1995) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I celebrated this day by planting trees. My call to you is that we build and continue the culture of planting trees and caring for the environment so that it may continue to care for us and future generations.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan (born 1960) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rais Samia asherehekea ‘birthday’ yake kwa kupanda mitimaraonlinenews.com (january27,2026 )
“[I]f they over exploited the palm trees in the production of the ashes... then they got into an ecological disaster because... [i]f there is no more palm trees, there is no more agriculture, and... the end of the pyramid construction. ...[T]his technology, even though it was a sacred one, was dangerous.”
Joseph Davidovits (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trees and corals are sensitive to their environments. For example, trees grow less in dry years and more in wet years.”
Helen McGregor (born 1974) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 500 years of drought and flood: trees and corals reveal Australia’s climate history. December 3, 2015, 8.53pm SAST, Jamie Duncan, The Conversation. Retrieved: 20 November 2023
“We will advocate for the replacement of bamboo trees near rivers with fruit-bearing trees. Rwandans need affordable fruits.”
Christine Mukabunani (born 1972) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: PS Imberakuri Outlines Vision for Environmental Protection in Upcoming Elections Kigali Times ( July 11, 2024)
“Now my people, when trees fall on trees, first the topmost must be removed.”
Ola Rotimi (1938–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through Chief Josiah Njonjo, my righthand man, I called for volunteers, for men who would swear before , the High God, that they would protect the native forest, plant so many native trees each year and take care of trees everywhere. The volunteers were called the Watu wa Miti () ...”
Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the moment, we have many, many indigenous trees in the tropics, but we are selecting very few for restoration – we’re mostly planting exotic trees like eucalyptus, grevillea, and cypress.”
Aster Afwork Gebrekirstos (born 1901) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am appealing to all citizens of Gaborone, including the business community, to appeal to the council's cooperation. We should have a small and clean capital city, decorated with trees. Let it be our vision that by 2016 we will have planted trees all over the country.”
Festus Mogae (1939–2026) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mogae launches One Million Trees Plant Project ,Mmegi (6 September 2012)
“I get upset when trees are felled. There are floods because there are no more trees.”
Agnes Locsin (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nuts in plenty but no kernel in any of them, Relish is needed for devotions to bear fruit, Kernels are needed that seeds may yield trees, How can seeds without kernels become trees? Form without life is only a dream.”
Rumi (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaf and blood at the root Black bodies swingin’ in the southern breeze Strange fruit hangin’ in the poplar trees.”
Billie Holiday (misattributed) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Strange Fruit" (1939). The anti-lynching song associated with Holiday was written by Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym Lewis Allen).
“I've fought with men and gods, I've weighed them well and found the sea more firm than earth, the air more firm than sea, and man's impalpable soul still yet more firm than air!”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes, I try to imagine what intelligent aliens, viewing Earth from afar, might think about the sea. From their perch in the sky, they could immediately see what many earthlings never seem to grasp: that this is a planet dominated by saltwater! In fact, the ocean is the cornerstone of the systems that sustain us: every breath we take is linked to the sea.”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She stands, a guardian of the endless sea, Her garb is golden, and her lips are flame, She is the portal of Eternity And Beauty is the realm from whence she came! She is the voice of many bleeding lands— America, she calls! To Arms! Arise! For like a shimmering sabre in the skies In scarlet glow she stands A guardian of the earth and sea— Liberty!”
Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff (1886–1967) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: America, To Arms!", Fifes and Drums (1917), p. 91
“I am privy to much that is unknown. Of sea and earth and sky I know an infinity of small and magic secrets. This time, however, I will tell only about the sea.”
María Luisa Bombal (1909–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I 'll example you with thievery: The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon 's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea 's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears; the earth 's a thief, That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen From general excrement: each thing 's a thief.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Maine Woods (1848) Ktaadn
“There is nothing human in the whole round of nature. All nature, all the universe that we can see, is absolutely indifferent to us, and except to us human life is of no more value than grass. If the entire human race perished at this hour, what difference would it make to the earth? What would the earth care? As much as for the extinct dodo, or for the fate of the elephant now going.”
Richard Jefferies (1848–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we're going to improve the environment, the first thing we should do is duck the government. The second thing we should do is quit being moral. Screw the rights of nature. Nature will have rights as soon as it get duties. The minute we see birds, trees, bugs, and squirrels picking up litter, giving money to charity, and keeping an eye on our kids at the park, we'll let them vote.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nature Is My God" - interview with Fred Matser in Resurgence No. 184 (September-October 1997)
“I will argue that sacredness of nature does not protect nature. Just because people venerate trees and rivers does not meant that they will take care of them.”
Meera Nanda (born 1954) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dharmic ecology and the neo-Pagan international: the dangers of religious environmentalism in India", 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Lunds University, Sweden. 8 July 2004.
“Nature remains our greatest ally to reach our climate mitigation targets. Planting trees is essential, but we need to raise a forest generation that will thrive and live in harmony with nature.”
Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki (born 1985) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A "forest generation" living in harmony with nature, October 2020. TED, Retrieved: 29, November 2023.
“Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King. Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room, And heav'n and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.”
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The barren island dreams in flowers, while blow The south winds, drawing haze o'er sea and land; Yet the great heart of ocean, throbbing slow, Makes the frail blossoms vibrate where they stand;And hints of heavier pulses soon to shake Its mighty breast when summer is no more, And devastating waves sweep on and break, And clasp with girdle white the iron shore.”
Celia Thaxter (1835–1894) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rockweeds" in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 21 (March 1868), p. 269
“O cool glad pasture; living tree, tall corn, Great cliff, or languid sloping sand, cold sea, Waves: river curving; you, eternal flowers, Give me content, while I can think of you: Give me your living breath! Back to your rampart, Death!”
Harold Monro (1879–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Living", line 36, from Alida Monro (ed.) Collected Poems (London: Duckworth, [1933] 1970) p. 13.
“Ah, yet would God this flesh of mine might be Where air might wash and long leaves cover me; Where tides of grass break into foam of flowers, Or where the wind's feet shine along the sea.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat, They stretch and spread and wink Their ten soft buds that part and meet.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where did love begin? What human being looked at another and saw in their face the forests and the sea? Was there a day, exhausted and weary, dragging home food, arms cut and scarred, that you saw yellow flowers and, not knowing what you did, picked them because I love you?”
Jeanette Winterson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dwell on her graciousness, dwell on her smiling, Do not forget what flowers The great boar trampled down in ivy time. Her brow was creamy as the crested wave, Her sea-blue eyes were wild But nothing promised that is not performed.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Juan at the Winter Solstice," lines 37–42, from Poems 1938-1945 (1946)
“As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the flowers… are open, awaiting my arrival, and they clothe beaches of the most beautiful blue, to receive my life, whole and healthy like before. I want to spend days by the sea, burning myself in the sun like we did in our juvenile days, and to be able to return and see my river, with the same tranquil and yearning eyes as I did when I was its bride.”
Julia de Burgos (1914–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On longing for Puerto Rico in her final years in “‘The Fatal Conscience’: Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico’s Greatest Poet” in The New York Review of Books (2018 Apr 26)
“They rear’d their lodges in the wilderness, Or built them cells beside the shadowy sea, And there they dwelt with angels, like a dream! So they unroll’d the Volume of the Book And fill’d the fields of the Evangelist With thoughts as sweet as flowers.”
Robert Hawker (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you're on Earth, if you go to the top of a mountain, the stars look much brighter than they do at sea level. And because the space shuttle is above Earth's atmosphere, it's like being on a very, very high mountain. So they look brighter, but not bigger.”
Sally Ride (1951–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The people know the salt of the sea and the strength of the winds lashing the corners of the earth. The people take the earth as a tomb of rest and a cradle of hope. Who else speaks for the Family of Man?”
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The People, Yes" (1936)
“Don’t live in the world as if you were renting Or here only for the summer, But act as if it were your father’s house. Believe in seeds, earth, the sea But people above all. Grieve for the withering branch, The dying star, And the hurt animal. But feel for people above all. Rejoice in all the earth’s blessings – Darkness and light, The four seasons, But people above all.”
Nâzım Hikmet (1901–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing, But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has never occurred to me before, but this is truly how it is: all of us on earth walk constantly over a seething, scarlet sea of flame, hidden below, in the belly of the earth. We never think of it. But what if the thin crust under our feet should turn into glass and we should suddenly see. I became glass. I saw — within myself.”
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw that our nature is in God whole: in which He maketh diversities flowing out of Him to work His will: whom Nature keepeth, and Mercy and Grace restoreth and fulfilleth. And of these none shall perish: for our nature that is the higher part is knit to God, in the making; and God is knit to our nature that is the lower part, in our flesh-taking: and thus in Christ our two natures are oned.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is Nature in His being: that is to say, that Goodness that is Nature, it is God. He is the ground, He is the substance, He is the same thing that is Nature-hood. And He is very Father and very Mother of Nature: and all natures that He hath made to flow out of Him to work His will shall be restored and brought again into Him by the salvation of man through the working of Grace.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature and it has been said often by philosophers, that nature is the will of God. And, I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see. If we wish to know the truth concerning anything, we'll find it in the nature of that thing.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Truth Against the World : Frank Lloyd Wright speaks for an organic architecture (1987) edited by Patrick J. Meehan
“Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thomas Edison ""No Immortality of the Soul" says Thomas A. Edison. In Fact, He Doesn't Believe There Is a Soul — Human Beings Only an Aggregate of Cells and the Brain Only a Wonderful Machine, Says Wizard of Electricity…
“When speaking of the spiritual nature or the soul, we are referring to that which is “inner” or “new.” When speaking of the bodily nature, or that which is flesh and blood, we are referring to that which is called “sensual,” “outward,” or “old.” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) said by 1546 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Live according to Nature, runs the maxim of the West; but according to what nature, the nature of the body or the nature which exceeds the body ? This first we ought to determine.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the beginning was nature. The background from which and against our ideas of God were formed, nature remains the supreme moral problem. We cannot hope to understand sex and gender until we clarify our attitude toward nature. Sex is a subset to nature. Sex is the natural in man.”
Camille Paglia (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Civilisation is not an appeal to nature. It is a revolt against nature—against nature as it has been represented in man in the past. It is supernatural. Civilization is an attempt to subordinate and control those primitive impulses which have reigned in human nature in the less gracious and less rational times gone by—impulses which we have ourselves to-day to a considerable extent inherited.”
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It doesn’t matter if you’re living in a city, you’re still in nature. A lot of white environmentalists still view nature as something that they go to, instead of thinking, nature is all around me. And that means that nature is also all around these different communities of colour, even if they’re living in a city.”
Leah Thomas wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every time you're tempted to ejaculate, every time you're tempted to go watch porn... You are essentially in the fight for your life. You're fighting for your very lifeforce. Nature's forgiving, and because of nature's merciful nature, we've taken advantage of that nature and now we're depleting.”
Nicholas Pereira first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 6 September 2021 article from Roberto Wakerell-Cruz of The Post Millenial