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Nature

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“Never to see or describe any interesting appearance in nature, without connecting it by dim analogies with the moral world, proves faintness of Impression. Nature has her proper interest; & he will know what it is, who believes & feels, that every Thing has a life of it's own, & that we are all one Life.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to William Sotheby (10 September 1802)
“I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul ... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Apollo mission press conference (1969); ABC World News; also quoted in Of a Fire on the Moon (1970) by Norman Mailer, and in First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (2005) by James R. Hansen
“One might say: art shows us the miracles of nature. It is based on the concept of the miracles of nature.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Schiller writes in a letter [to Goethe, 17 December 1795] of a ‘poetic mood’. I think I know what he means, I think I am familiar with it myself. It is the mood of receptivity to nature and one in which one's thoughts seem as vivid as nature itself.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure. (12)”
Epicurus (342–270 BC) said by 270 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is the child of Nature; yes, Her darling child, in whom we trace The features of the mother's face, Her aspect and her attitude, All her majestic loveliness Chastened and softened and subdued Into a more attractive grace, And with a human sense imbued. He is the greatest artist, then, Whether of pencil or of pen, Who follows Nature.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I trust in Nature for the stable laws Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant And Autumn garner to the end of time. I trust in God,—the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures. I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward,—Nature's good And God's.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Soul's Tragedy (1846), Act. i.
“What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns and stools? If honest Nature made you fools What sairs your grammars? Ye'd better taen up spades and shools Or knappin hammers. Gie' me ae spark o' Nature's fire! That's a' the learning I desire: Then, tho' I drudge thro' dub and mire At plough or cart, My muse, though homely in attire, May touch the heart.”
Robert Burns (1759–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Athenæum, no. 756 (23 April 1842) p. 361, col. 2. Last two lines quoted as epigraph in Eliza Cook, Poems, new ed. (London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1860) front matter
“As in the eye of Nature he has lived, So in the eye of Nature let him die!”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is man's nature; nature is God's art.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[H]e was a graduate in nature's university. Nature is wiser than the schoolmaster; she educates but she never crams. Her scholars do not go up to take their degrees; their degrees come to them.”
Jean Ingelow (1820–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art thy not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it? Just as if the eye demanded recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking. For as these members are formed for a particular purpose... so also is man formed by nature to acts of benevolence.”
Marcus Aurelius (121–180) said by 180 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.”
Marcus Aurelius (121–180) said by 180 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To this day I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter. The study of Nature makes a man at last as remorseless as Nature.”
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men became scientific because they expected law in Nature; and they expected law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e have things fundamentally backwards today: we let the needs of the economy dictate the nature of our society, while we should let the needs of our society determine the nature of our economy.”
Linda McQuaig (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose. And whenever the conscious mind clings to hard and fast concepts and gets caught in its own rules and regulations—as is unavoidable and of the essence of civilized consciousness—nature pops up with her inescapable demands.”
Carl Jung (1875–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature may certainly produce whatever can arise from habit: Nay, habit is nothing but one of the principles of nature, and derives all its force from that origin.”
David Hume (1711–1776) said by 1776 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid Art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He would adore my gifts instead of me, And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature: So both should losers be.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'You're still the same girl. What people do doesn't change their nature.' She shook her head.[…] 'What they do is their nature,' she said.”
Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh, January 1874
“Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term "Art," I should call it "the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul." The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of "Artist".”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”
James Madison (1751–1836) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)
“When the real nature of things becomes clear to the meditating Bikshu, then all his doubts fade away since he has learned what is that nature and what it's cause. From ignorance spring all the evils. From knowledge comes the cessation of this mass of misery, and then the meditating Brahmana stands dispelling the hosts of Mara like the sun that illuminates the sky.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahavagga 1st Khandhaka, as translated/quoted by Koot Hoomi, in The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, Letter No. X, (1923), Letter No. X, 1881
“These shapes are all out of someone's mind. That's important to see. The steel? Hell, even the steel is out of someone's mind. There's no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There's nothing else there. But what's "potential"? That's also in someone's mind!”
Robert M. Pirsig (1928–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
Max Planck (1858–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why do I see things differently from the way other people see them? Why do I pursue the questions that I pursue, even if others regard them as, as they say, "controversial?" Which merely means that they have a difference of opinion. They see things differently. I am interested both in nature, and in the human side of nature, and how the two can be brought together, and effectively used.”
Jonas Salk (1914–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human existence is obviously distinguished from animal life by its qualified participation in creation. Within limits it breaks the forms of nature and creates new configurations of vitality. Its transcendence over natural process offers it the opportunity of interfering with the established forms and unities of vitality as nature knows them.”
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.”
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I understood three manners of beholding of Motherhood in God: the first is grounded in our Nature's making; the second is taking of our nature, — and there beginneth the Motherhood of Grace; the third is Motherhood of working, — and therein is a forthspreading by the same Grace, of length and breadth and height and of deepness without end. And all is one Love.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature loves to hide her secrets, and she does not suffer the hidden truth about the essential nature of the gods to be flung in naked words to the ears of the profane...”
Julian (emperor) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oration to the Cynic Heracleios (tr. W. C. Wright, ii, 1913)
“Men's works also are naturally perishable and mutable and subject to every kind of alteration. But since God is eternal, it follows that of such sort are his ordinances also. And since they are such, they are either the natures of things or are accordant with the nature of things. For how could nature be at variance with the ordinance of God? How could it fall out of harmony therewith?”
Julian (emperor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the Cretaceous Period many of the inland seas dried up, leaving the Plesiosaurs stranded without any fish. Just about that time Mother Nature scrapped the whole Age of Reptiles and called for a new deal. And you can see what she got. [Footnote: Here we see the working of another Law of Nature: No water, no fish.]”
Will Cuppy (1884–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful problem, because it doesn't look so easy.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Simulating Physics with Computers", International Journal of Theoretical Physics, volume 21, 1982, p. 467-488, at p. 486 (final words)
“The idea of quantum mechanics that I want to describe now is a positive thing. It's a way that we actually use to make calculations and understand nature. Excuse me, to make calculations! We really don't understand it very well... Understanding real nature, we are unable to do.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While I am describing to you how Nature works, you won't understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The theory of quantum electrodynamics describes Nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you accept Nature as She is — absurd.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.”
Orson Welles (1915–1985) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted from a commentary aired on 8/11/1946 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqKEb4h6jec&list=PLfJteNATGDXI7G5xF1K3GtAbB-VkRIpia&index=3
“Talents is a creation of society rather than a gift of nature; it is an accumulated capital of which the recipient is only the guardian. Without society, without education and powerful assistance which it gives, the finest nature would be inferior to the most ordinary capacities even in the rare as where it ought to shine.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Acceptance. Acceptance of the impermanence of being. And acceptance of the imperfect nature of being, or possibly the perfect nature of being, depending on how one looks at it. Acceptance that this is not a rehearsal. That this is it.”
William Gibson (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Additionally, in the United States, we define manliness in terms of aggression. I think it must be because we're frightened. We put on a show of being tough guys, but it's completely unnecessary, you know. If you have what it takes, you don't need to put on an act, and you certainly don't need to beat nature into submission. Why be hostile to nature?”
Alan Watts (1915–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human nature asserts itself regardless of all laws, nor is there any plausible reason why nature should adapt itself to a perverted conception of morality.”
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The painter strives and competes with nature...There is nothing in all nature without its reason. If you know the reason, you do not need the experience...”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Experience, the interpreter between formative nature and the human race, teaches how that nature acts among mortals; and being constrained by necessity cannot act otherwise than as reason, which is its helm, requires her to act.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The false interpreters of nature declare that quicksilver is the common seed of every metal, not remembering that nature varies the seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce in the world.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable of availing thyself of thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life of stillness and to obey the law which God and time gave to procreative nature.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source