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Nature

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“From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature’s text; And embryo Good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the Evil in its nature.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To legislation... the Puritans resorted. Instead of guiding, they repressed, and thus pitted themselves against the unconquerable impulses of human nature. Believing that nature to be depraved, they felt themselves logically warranted in putting it in irons. But they failed; and their failure ought to be a warning to their successors.”
John Tyndall (1820–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is a substitute for violence. The same impulses that drive persons to violence — the hunger for meaning, the need for ecstasy, the impulse to risk all — drive the artist to create. He is by nature our archrebel. … the essence of the rebellion is in the new way of seeing nature and life.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seeing the moon, he becomes the moon, the moon seen by him becomes him. He sinks into nature, becomes one with nature. The light of the "clear heart" of the priest, seated in the meditation hall in the darkness before the dawn, becomes for the dawn moon its own light.”
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We desperately need to recognise that we are the guests, not the masters, of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism.”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Planet Savers : 301 Extraordinary Environmentalists (2008) by Kevin Desmond, p. 248
“Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded Consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind.”
Patañjali (active around 201 BC) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our desire to conserve wildlife for our children and our children's children forces us to bring out into the open conservation's secret question : Does God give a prize for the maximum number of human beings? Put another way, which shall we bequeath to our grandchildren : human life with nature, or human life without nature?”
Garrett Hardin (1915–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the artist has outer and inner eyes for nature, nature rewards him by giving him inspiration.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The philosophy of the impossible has been the dominant motive in human affairs for the past two centuries. We have pursued the mastery of nature as if we ourselves were not a portion of that nature. We have boasted of our command over our physical environment while we ourselves have done our urgent best to destroy it.”
Robert Ardrey (1908–1980) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Social Contract: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins of Order and Disorder (1970)
“Troy: Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such other nature films as "Earwigs, Ew." and "Man Vs Nature... The Road To Victory".”
Phil Hartman (1948–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main virtue of the physics-chemistry-biology sequence is the hierarchical nature of the sciences. Physics comes first because it serves as a powerul prerequisite for chemistry and because it can more clearly illustrate the nature of the scientific process.”
Leon M. Lederman (1922–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Properties perceived in nature will depend on how one looks and how one looks depends on the economic interest one has in the resources of nature. The value of profit maximization is thus linked to reductionist systems, while the value of life and the maintenance of life is linked to holistic and ecological systems.”
Vandana Shiva (born 1952) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (1988)
“At the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, V.S. Naipaul saw it as ‘a new, historical awakening’, of ‘Indians becoming alive to their history’ and ‘beginning to understand that there has been a great vandalising of India. Because of the nature of the conquest and the nature of Hindu society such understanding had eluded Indians before’.”
V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)
“The means whereby this work of Nature is brought to its consummate issue are forces of Nature working under her Laws by the method of cause and effect. The principle, or "law," of causation is a metaphysical postulate; in the sense that such a fact as causation is unproved and unprovable. No man has ever observed a case of causation, as is a commonplace with the latterday psychologists.”
Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is absurd to suppose we can think of nature as a system apart from knowledge, for it is knowledge that is increasingly determining the course of nature”
Kenneth Boulding (1910–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 141 as cited in John Laurent (2003) Evolutionary Economics and Human Nature. p. 175
“As to the essence of human nature, what our national experience has made plain is this, that to remain in a continually exalted moral condition is not human nature. That has happened which was prophesied: we have gone down hill from the Revolution until now; we are absorbed in "mere money-getting.”
Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This civilization is the work of man, who high-handedly and ignorant of the true workings of Nature, has created a world without meaning or foundation, which now threatens to destroy him, for through his behavior and his activities, he, who should be her master, has disturbed Nature's inherent unity.”
Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beyond the constructive elements of the picture, I studied the tonalities of nature by adding layer upon layer of diluted black watercolour paint. Each layer must dry well. In this way a mathematically correct scale of light and dark values is the result. Squinting facilitates our perception of this phenomenon in nature.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote (1908), # 840, in The Diaries of Paul Klee; University of California Press, 1964; as quoted by Francesco Mazzaferro, in 'The Diaries of Paul Klee - Part Three' : Klee as a Secessionist and a Neo-Impressionist Arti…
“Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail. Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (Munich, 1909), # 857, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 236
“The artists is responsible for his history and his nature, his history is part of his nature.”
Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Gerhard Richter, Doubt and belief in painting, Robert Storr, MOMA, New York, 2003, p. 32 note 1.
“Only when the habit of one's consciousness to see in paintings bits of nature, Madonna's and shameless nudes.. ..has disappeared, shall we see a pure painting composition. I have transformed myself into the nullity of forms and pulled myself out of the circle of things, out of the circle-horizon in which the artist and forms of nature are locked.”
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in: Marc Chagall, – a Biography, Sidney Alexander, Cassell, London, 1978, p. 178
“To produce good sculpture it is not necessary to copy the works of antiquity; it is necessary first of all to regard the works of nature, and to see in those of the classics only the method by which they have interpreted nature.”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Auguste Rodin by Isadora Duncan, As quoted in Modern Dancing and Dancers (1912) by John Ernest Crawford Flitch, p. 105.
“I am not at their orders, but at those of Nature! My confreres doubtless have their reasons for working as you have said. But in thus doing violence to nature and treating human beings like puppets, they run the risk of producing lifeless and artificial work...”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I grant you that the artist does not see Nature as she appears to the vulgar, because his emotion reveals to him the hidden truths beneath appearances. But, after all, the only principle in Art is to copy what you see. Dealers in esthetics to the contrary, every other method is fatal. There is no recipe for improving nature.”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have been living a hermit-life, though always with my pencil in my hand.. .How much real delight have I had with the study of landscape this summer! Either I am myself improved in the art of seeing nature, which Sir Joshua call painting, or nature has unveiled her beauties to me less fastidiously. Perhaps there is something of both, so we will divide the compliment.”
John Constable (1776–1837) first seen 1812 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Constable's letter to Rev. John Fisher (22 July 1812), as quoted in Richard Friedenthal, Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock (Thames and Hudson, London, 1963), p. 40
“I have likewise made many 'skies' and effects — for I wish it could be said of me as Fuselli says of Rembrandt, 'he followed nature in her calmest abodes and could pluck a flower on every hedge — yet he was born to cast a steadfast eye on the bolder phenomena of nature'... We have had noble clouds & effects of light & dark & color.”
John Constable (1776–1837) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from a letter to Rev. John Fisher in 1821 on his oil-sketches of stormy weather, as quoted in Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable (Tate Gallery Publications, London 1993), p. 222
“Art is the sanctification of the nature, of that nature found in everyone who is content to live.”
Maurice Denis (1870–1943) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2 Quotes from Denis' 1906 essay 'The Sun'; as cited on Wikipedia: Maurice Denis - reference [29]
“Art is no longer a visual sensation that we gather, like a photograph, as it were, of nature. No, it is a creation of our spirit, for which nature is only the occasion.”
Maurice Denis (1870–1943) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Denis, 1909: from Bouillon 2006, pp. 17-18; as cited on Wikipedia: Maurice Denis - reference [9]
“Since industrialization, we have moved rapidly out of synchronicity with nature and our own nature.”
Russell Brand (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art has a harmony which parallels that of nature. The people who tell you that the artist is always inferior to nature are idiots! He is parallel to it. Unless, of course, he deliberately intervenes. His whole aim must be silence. He must silence all the voices of prejudice within him, he must forget.. .And then the entire landscape will engrave itself on the sensitive plate of his being.”
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a face, look for the main light and the main shadow; the rest will come naturally — it's often not important. And then you must cultivate your memory, because Nature will only provide you with references. Nature is like a warden in a lunatic asylum. It stops you from becoming banal.”
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.”
Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) first seen 1770 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature, under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud.
“Now, if the ignorance of nature gave birth to Gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.”
Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) said by 1789 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole of French art is a matter of seeing Nature as beautiful, very beautiful, in fact. But on the whole this is not enough. You have to create your own Nature – Van Gogh!”
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art, Dietmer Elger, Taschen, 2002, p. 166
“You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I'm free.”
Philip Pullman (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who will please the crowd and for the sake of the most ephemeral renown will either proclaim those things which nature does not display or even will publish genuine miracles of nature without regard to deeper causes is a spiritually corrupt person… With the best of intentions I publicly speak to the crowd (which is eager for things new) on the subject of what is to come.”
Johannes Kepler (1572–1630) said by 1630 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's nothing that tastes of death more than the summer sun, the powerful light, exuberant nature. You sniff the air and listen to the woods and know that the plants and animals don't give a damn about you. Everything lives and consumes itself. Nature is death...”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The underlying principle of Balance in Nature’s One Law is equality of interchange between the pairs of opposites in any transaction in Nature. That principle must eventually be observed by big business, and the go-getter salesman who selfishly thinks that the sale he makes is the only thing that counts is not giving equally for what he takes.”
Walter Russell (1871–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas. How sad that people ignore the near and search the truth afar: like someone in the midst of water crying out in thirst: like a child of a wealthy home wandering among the poor.”
Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1769) said by 1769 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Learn to live in harmony with each other and nature. Living a thoroughly loving joyous abundant life is your god given right. Nature is abundant. Live according to the universal law, universal principles such as Brother/Sisterly Love, Universal Peace, Individual Freedom and Prosperity for all.”
James Gilliland (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the nature of human energy; individuals generate it, and control it. Each person is self-controlling, and therefore responsible for his acts. Every human being, by his nature, is free.”
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea that art copies nature is a fatal misconception. Art has always operated against nature and for reason.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beautiful in nature is the unmarred result of God's first creative or forming will,and ..the beautiful in art is the result of an unmistaken working of man in accordance with the beautiful in nature.”
William Barnes (1801–1886) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thoughts on Beauty in Art- Article in MacMillan's Magazine 1861.
“The old view was that delicacy of language was part of the nature, the sacred nature, of eros and that to speak about it in any other way would be to misunderstand it. What has disappeared is the risk and the hope of human connectedness embedded in eros. Ours is a language that reduces the longing for an other to the need for individual, private satisfaction and safety.”
Allan Bloom (1930–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Philosophical questions are not by their nature insoluble. They are, indeed, radically different from scientific questions, because they concern the implications and other interrelations of ideas, not the order of physical events; their answers are interpretations instead of factual reports, and their function is to increase not our knowledge of nature, but our understanding of what we know.”
Susanne Langer (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensible for my dialogue with nature.”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Friedrich, 1821; as cited in Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790-1840 (2000) by Andreas Schönle, p. 108, from memoirs of Vasily Zhukovsky
“What the newer landscape artists see in a circle of a hundred degrees in Nature they press together unmercifully into an angle of vision of only forty-five degrees. And furthermore, what is in Nature separated by large spaces, is compressed into a cramped space and overfills and oversatiates the eye, creating an unfavorable and disquieting effect on the viewer.”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) said by 1840 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cited by Timothy Mitchell, (September 1984), in 'Caspar David Friedrich's Der Watzmann: German Romantic Landscape Painting and Historical Geology', 'The Art Bulletin', 66 (3), p. 452–464, doi:10.2307/3050447, JSTOR 3050…
“Sibelius has an acutely developed sense of identification with nature and a preoccupation with myth that at one and the same time define his unique strength and his basic limitation. These preoccupations override his involvement in the human predicament, except in so far as it affects man’s relationship with nature.”
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert Layton Sibelius (London: J. M. Dent, [1965] 1971), ch. 16, p. 153.
“All natures, all formed things, all creatures exist in and with one another and will again be resolved into their own roots, because the nature of matter is dissolved into the roots of its nature alone. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin. That is why the Good came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to its root. Then He continued and said, That is why you become sick and die, for you are deprived of the one who can heal you.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source