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“It can seem an amazing fact that laws of nature keep on holding, that the frame of nature does not fall apart.”
Simon Blackburn (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would feel homesick for Federal Way, Washington where I grew up. A city both exuberant with nature but also nature’s destruction: virgin forests giving way to freeways, streams filled in to build strip malls, dams destroying ancient salmon spawning grounds.”
Heather Brooke (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is for art the garb of the Eternal. The real is the finite expression and representation of the true ; forms are the limits affixed by time and space to the power of life. Nature, reality, and form, should, all of them, be so rendered and expressed by art, as to reveal to mankind some ray of the truth — a vaster and profounder sentiment of life.”
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Life and Writings of Joseph Mazzini (1864 translation), Preface (1861) Vol. II, p. vii
“Many people, including many important and well-respected scientists, just don’t want there to be anything beyond nature. They don’t want a supernatural being to affect nature.”
Michael Behe (born 1952) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. (1996).
“Although Aristotle may have been right to claim that a desire to know is part of the fundamental constitution of human nature, … Nietzsche is also correct to emphasize that the impulse to evaluate our surroundings, our fellows, and ourselves is at least as deeply rooted in our human nature as is any natural “desire to know.” “Der Mensch ist ein abschätzendes Tier.”
Raymond Geuss (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The promise of technology is to remove the division between culture and nature. Whatever part of nature that is left over as an independent force is covered by the technological bluff, which refers it to the agenda of the future and disguises the deficiencies of the present.”
Donald Phillip Verene (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Strauss’ whole study indicates that noble nature as Nietzsche presents it—no, embodies it—replaces divine nature as Plato presents it.”
Laurence Lampert (1941–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Granting, I say that competition has hitherto been the universal law, the last word, of nature, still if only one man should stand up and say, "It shall be so no more," if he should say, "It is not the last word of my nature, and my acts and life declare that it is not," then that so-called law would be at an end.”
Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: England's Ideal: And Other Papers on Social Subjects (1887) p. 54
“The wonders of nature, she learned, from wing of bee to sonar of bat to eyeball of baby, were not so much perfect machines as adequate contraptions. If nature bespoke a mind, it was a confused and inchoate one, a mind incapable of locating the optic nerve on the correct side of the retina, a mind unable to accomplish much of anything without resort to jerry-building and extinction.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve heard that some of the larger spiders hunt songbirds. I have no objection to that. The spiders belong here, too. Let nature do what it needs to do. We who are people know more than to guide ourselves by nature’s practices.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tales of Zanthias (published in Weird Tales (July-August, 2003); reprinted in David G. Hartwell (ed.), Year’s Best Fantasy 4 (pp. 400-401))
“After many centuries we have rediscovered nature’s way of keeping populations in hand. Nature does it the old-fashioned way, by killing people.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One does not debate nature; one experiences nature.”
Michael F. Flynn (1947–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have always known that I want to be a scholar. That it is a worthy thing for a man to work at the university and discover the secrets of nature. Scientific work was not a revelation, it was not a change in life direction – except my first dream to be a pearl diver. It was all from the nature, from home.”
Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (2013): Macanie świata, interview. Focus (in Polish).
“Will saw the cruelty now as the fierce inevitability of nature. It was not from malice that the Light and the servants of the Light would ever hound the Dark, but from the nature of things.”
Susan Cooper (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything cultural is fabricated and given meaning by the mind, a meaning that was not given by physical nature. Culture is in this sense “supernatural,” and all systematizations of culture have in their end the same goal: to raise men above nature to assure them that in some ways their lives count more than merely physical things count.”
Ernest Becker (1924–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This first stage of the life of the whole race is savagery, raw nature:… a condition in which man enjoys the most exquisite goods, equality and freedom, in full abundance, and would also enjoy them forever, if he would follow the hint of nature and understand the art of not abusing his powers and preventing the outbreak of his excessive passions.”
Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden (1794) pp. 20-21.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are no gods. We arise from nature—and nature is not a moral entity.”
Eric Maisel (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This skeptical method consists very much in vicious circles. You cannot know whether a fact be a fact till you have ascertained the laws of nature in the case, and you cannot know the laws of nature till you have ascertained facts.”
Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jesus does not give us a discourse on the nature of the universe, he gives us a set of active verbs. And yet what better discourse on the real nature of the universe could there be? (p.178.)”
John R. Platt (1918–1992) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited in: Rex Robert Dolan (1967). The big change: the challenge to radical change in the Church.
“The scientific world picture does not include … things that have not been constructed, that are not understood as artefacts … Instead of the final cause one starts to speak about purpose, which nature itself does not have. Only humans can set aims and achieve them by their activities if they know the laws of nature and set up various processes based on them and organise them purposively.”
Rein Vihalemm (1938–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is easy to replace man, and it will take no great time, where Nature has lapsed, to replace Nature.”
Alice Meynell (1847–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“According to the subdivision of Cleanthes, Physic and Theology go together, or the study of the nature of Things, and the study of the nature of the Deity, so far as man can understand the Deity, and of his government of the universe. This division or subdivision is not formally adopted by Antoninus, for... there is no method in his book; but it is virtually contained in it.”
George Long (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A model may be pictorial, descriptive, qualitative, or generally approximate in nature, or it may be mathematical and quantitative in nature and reasonably precise.”
Harold Chestnut (1917–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of social development are not identical with the laws in the natural sciences. The content of the social laws is not nature but second nature: coagulated history. They are manmade, but they also make men; they are dialectical, at once subject and object.”
Russell Jacoby (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Further, as every law of nature implies the existence of an invariant, it follows that every law of nature is a constraint.”
W. Ross Ashby (1903–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a distinction and differentiation, According to our reason, Between God and the Godhead, Between action and rest. The fruitful nature of the Persons (Trinity) Ever worketh in a living differentiation. But the simple Being of God, According to the nature thereof, Is an eternal Rest of God And of all created things”
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) said by 1381 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first scientific postulate is the objectivity of nature: nature does not have any intention or goal.”
Jacques Monod (1910–1976) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology by Jacques Monod, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, ISBN 0-394-46615-2
“The worldview of the classical sciences conceptualized nature as a giant machine composed of intricate but replaceable machine-like parts. The new systems sciences look at nature as an organism endowed with irreplaceable elements and an innate but non-deterministic purpose for choice, for flow, for spontaneity.”
Ervin László (1932–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Turner is my great favourite of all the painters here. He combines the highest poetical imagination with an exquisite feeling for all the truth and individuality of nature; and he has shown that the ideal, as it is called, is not the improving of Nature, but the selecting and combining objects that are most in harmony and character with each other.”
Charles Robert Leslie (1794–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Viewed from an evolutionary perspective, mind is not the cause of the order in nature; mind is an example of the order in nature - something to be explained rather than the explanation for everything else.”
Steve Stewart-Williams (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My upbringing does not allow me to take a life... When we go against nature then everything becomes dangerous; human beings too become dangerous. On the other hand, if we co-operate with nature, then she also co-operates with us.”
Narendra Modi (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept: namely, to interpret language by nature. We [generally and incorrectly] reverse the rule and interpret nature by language.”
Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And of universal nature, the notion I would offer, should be something like this. Nature is the aggregate of the bodies, that make up the world, in its present state, considered as a principle, by virtue whereof, they act and suffer, according to the laws of motion, prescribed by the author of things.”
Robert Boyle (1627–1691) said by 1691 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, my instrument there is simply bamboo. The sound is straight from nature and it connects me to nature.”
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All men strive and hope for nothing other than eternal life in their human nature. For this they instituted purgations of souls and sacred rites, in order to be better adapted in their nature to that eternal life.”
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) said by 1464 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think, for me, nature has always been my main point of reference. I think as a child I was fascinated by landscapes and nature wherever I went. I was able to travel all over Denmark, which is not that large, everywhere in this country where I've been I always loved the landscape.”
Margrethe II of Denmark (born 1940) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Reuters, quoted on ITN. (26 January 2012)
“Human learning, with the blessing of God upon it, introduces us to divine wisdom; and while we study the works of nature the God of nature will manifest himself to us; since, to a well-tutored mind, “The heavens,” without a miracle, “declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his handy-work.”
George Horne (1730–1792) said by 1792 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Horne (bp. of Norwich.) (1799). Discourses on several subjects and occasions. Vol. 1,2, p. 357; As quoted in Allibone (1880)
“Plain in the doctrinal firmament of every Christian, clear like the sun in the sky, should shine the warning: Unless there is a real man underived from Nature, unless there is a spiritual or rational man independent of the natural man and legislatively sovereign over entire Nature, then the Eternal is not a person, there is no God, and our faith is vain.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fine, a condition of our making freedom possible in a world ordered by the rigour of natural law is that we accept an idealistic philosophy of Nature: the laws of Nature must issue from the free actor himself, and upon a world consisting of states in his own consciousness, a world in so far of his own making.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is true religion in that man who, instead of endeavoring to perfect but one department of his nature, makes his physical, mental, social, and moral life, equal. Cultivate your physical nature, perfect your life, and in that proportion your soul will be perfect. Cultivate strength, vigor, power, manliness, and symmetry, and in that proportion the soul can think greater thoughts.”
Cora L. V. Scott (1840–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My sense is that, in the long run, Mother Nature always wins. Cautionary note: Mother Nature's win may not include the survival of the pesky human race!”
Rudy Rucker (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mind of sentient beings as it is in itself has neither marks nor nature. It is like the ocean, like space. Since it is like space, there are no marks that are not subsumed within it. How could it contain a direction such as east or west? Since it is like the ocean, there is no nature that is preserved.”
Wonhyo (617–686) said by 686 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is a rational animal, and if human affairs are hard to regulate, his twofold nature is usually the cause. Reason is something ultimate; it would be the same in another planet, or in another universe, as it is here. Animal nature is something contingent; it might have been different. Our life is a compromise, a blend between the animal and the rational.”
Ralph George Hawtrey (1879–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The statement of a law of nature involves the formation of a concept, or general idea, in which the likenesses of phenomena are collected, and the differences, in so far as they are not intimately involved in the nature of the case, are eliminated.”
J. R. Partington (1886–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is constructed in such a way that there is no doubt that it cannot be so constructed by casuality. The more one studies the phenomena of nature, the more deeply one becomes convinced of this. There are natural laws of an incredible depth and beauty. One cannot think that all of this can be reduced to an accumulation of molecules.”
Carlo Rubbia (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no nature that exists devoid of nurture; there is no nurture that develops without nature. To say otherwise is like saying that the area of a field is determined by its length but not its width. Every behavior is the product of an instinct trained by experience.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And even where I am wrong about human nature, I am not wrong that there is such a nature to be sought.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Western cultural revolution that calls itself political correctness will no doubt stifle inquiries it does not like, such as those into the mental differences between men and women. I sometimes feel that we are fated never to understand ourselves because part of our nature is to turn every inquiry into an expression of our own nature: ambitious, illogical, manipulative, and religious.”
Matt Ridley (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most perfectly constructed object in nature, and also the most beautiful object in nature, is the human form as it approaches perfection. This, then, is the criterion of construction as it is of design. The study of its beauties is the veritable key to art...”
Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One does not go to the theater to see life and nature; one goes to see the particular way in which life and nature happen to look to a cultivated, imaginative and entertaining man who happens, in turn, to be a playwright.”
George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source