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“All national currencies are deep in debt-- indebted to nature-- because human economies extract from nature faster than we replenish.”
Paul Glover (born 1947) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (The Ithacan, “The Destiny of Dollars”), 2007-11-01
“Colonists did not, at this point, claim any privileges under the law of Great Britain. They were breaking from the law of Great Britain. They were appealing instead to the laws of nature and of nature’s God. And it was under those laws that they had the right to resist oppression.”
Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, dutiful daughter,” said Azhrarn. “You are to be a goddess somewhere, for I would teach this world the nature of gods.” “And what is their nature?” she said. “Indifferent and cruel. And loving not mankind.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I worry that this incredibly important and incredibly difficult conversation about race and policing has become focused entirely on the nature and character of law enforcement officers, when it should also be about something much harder to discuss. Debating the nature of policing is very important, but I worry that it has become an excuse, at times, to avoid doing something harder.”
James Comey (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“According to Spinoza’s system, all reality flows with strict necessity from the nature of God. With the geometrical method, Spinoza captures the structure of this reality by deducing philosophical conclusions about reality from definitions which express the nature of God.”
Michael Della Rocca wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Copy nature and you infringe on the work of our Lord. Interpret nature and you are an artist.”
Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jacques Lipchitz cited in: Bernard S. Raskas (1976). Living thoughts: inspiration, insight, and wisdom from sources throughout the ages. p. 22; Quoted in: William Safire, ‎Leonard Safir (1990). Words of Wisdom. p. 34
“In the quantitative models that appear in leading economics journals and textbooks, nature is taken to be a fixed, indestructible factor of production. The problem with the assumption is that it is wrong: nature consists of degradable resources.”
Partha Dasgupta (born 1942) first seen 1537 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Partha Dasgupta "Nature's role in sustaining economic development." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365.1537 (2010): 5-11.
“Logic aims to instruct the human mind as to its own nature and processes; it will lay bare the interior working of our mind for our guidance. The object of the study of logic is thought, its nature, and its proper classification.”
Joseph Dietzgen (1828–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This universal character of referring and expressing, which is proper to our entire created cosmos, stamps created reality as meaning, in accordance with its dependent non-self-sufficient nature. Meaning is the being of all that has been created and the nature even of our selfhood. It has a religious root and a divine origin.”
Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be sure from nature never to depart; To copy nature is the task of art. The noblest poets own her sovereign sway, And ever follow where she leads the way.”
Christopher Pitt (1699–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as we go back often to Nature herself, and practice the art of then forgetting for the time the fictions and hypotheses necessary in the partial treatments of our specialities,—as long as we thereby allow Nature and her facts to speak to us for themselves,—so long shall we, after each fresh contact, return to our labors with renewed strength and clarified vision.”
Ralph Vary Chamberlin (1879–1967) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Science and Reality" (1931) Bios Vol. 2, No. 1 , p. 40
“He (the photographer) has practically created a new thing out of materials gathered from nature; upon a foundation of fact he has allowed his imagination to build up an entirely fictitious scene, and the truth of the effect will depend upon how far his perceptions have been trained by studying nature at various times, so as to know how things might look under certain circumstances.”
Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Postmodernism is what you have when the modernization process is complete and nature is gone for good. It is a more fully human world than the older one, but one in which "culture" has become a veritable "second nature.”
Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature cannot achieve the first-best outcomes to which those like Kant aspire because the latter are not incentive-compatible. That is to say, they are achievable only if the human beings who live in the society act in a manner that is incompatible with their nature.”
Kenneth Binmore (born 1940) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Game Theory and the Social Contract (1994), p. 152
“The history of Australia, black or white, is not only the struggle between peoples but the struggle between nature and people. Nature tamed many of the settlers, sometimes defeating them, but people held many victories, sometimes at high cost.”
Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Psychology is an attempt to gain a scientific understanding of human nature. We are all deeply interested in knowing human nature. When we are not talking about ourselves we are usually talking about our neighbors.”
Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of nature are rigged not only in favor of complexity, or just in favor of life, but also in favor of mind. To put it dramatically, it implies that mind is written into the laws of nature in a fundamental way.”
Paul Davies (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes. Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.”
Liu Xiaobo (1955–2017) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NPR - "Liu Xiaobo: 'No Enemies, No Hatred,' Only Courage" 16 Feb. 2012
“Nature in fact the best and wisest is an architect and urban planner. (...) The history of establishing gardens and orchards throughout the centuries in Poland is worth knowing, taking into consideration changes in fashions and the foreign influences. Unfortunately, not many objects from those days manifesting the love of nature by man have remained till the present days.”
Marek Żukow-Karczewski (born 1961) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gardens and orchards in the old Poland, "Aura" 11, 1987-11, p.17-18.
“The knowledge of nature and the mastery of nature have always belonged together.”
Hugo Münsterberg (1863–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to become a force of nature, you need to interact with the forces of nature.”
Erwan Le Corre (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yeah, I live a pretty Machiavellian life, and I'm a sceptic. I tend to believe the worst of people because I understand human nature. Human nature has never changed. That's why one of Stone's rules is that hate is a stronger motivator than love.”
Roger Stone (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science teachers have a special responsibility to study the nature of science as a discipline, how it works, how it is described by sociologists, historians, and philosophers from different points of view…. Science education cannot just be about learning science: Its foundation must be learning about the nature of science as a human activity.”
Jay Lemke (born 1946) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 175; as cited in: Hanuscin, Deborah L., and Michele H. Lee. "Teaching Against the Mystique of Science: Literature Based Approaches in Elementary Teacher Education." Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum presentations (M…
“To apply the category of cause and effect means to find out which parts of nature stand in this relation. Similarly, to apply the gestalt category means to find out which parts of nature belong as parts to functional wholes, to discover their position in these wholes, their degree of relative independence, and the articulation of larger wholes into sub-wholes.”
Kurt Koffka (1886–1941) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kurt Koffka (1931), self-cited in: Kurt Koffka. Principles of Gestalt Psychology, 1935, p. 22
“Christ's mission is to release the divine into our conscious knowing. He awakens the impulse in humanity to rise above his lower nature and be aware of his higher nature that dwells within.”
Flower A. Newhouse (1909–1994) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture, April 6, 1969 - Emmanuel, God with Us
“…There are many ways of defining the modern but one is to say that an urban space, a man-made space, has some of the energy, wildness, unpredictability and randomness that we usually associate with nature. In another age, somebody might speak with the same kind of excitement about nature as the modernist does about the city…”
Amit Chaudhuri (born 1962) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how he envisions modernity in “INTERVIEW WITH AMIT CHAUDHURI” in The White Review (March 2013)
“Crystals! Harmony of matter Born without any clatter but with Holy's mighty venture as the sparkling kids of Nature Crystals! Time past memorizing, Nature's story vitalizing, witnessing the world's creation warning its obliteration...”
Ivan Kostov Nikolov (1914–2004) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ode on Crystals, st. 2 & 3 (24 January 2001).
“Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it. I want to draw a certain response like this.. ..that quality of response from people when they leave themselves behind, often experienced in nature, an experience of simple joy.. .My paintings are about merging, about formlessness.. .A world without objects, without interruption.”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ann Wilson, from her talks in the Summer of 1972 at Agnes Martin's home in Mexico - an unpublished document; as quoted in Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art, Chapter 7 - 'Departures', Nancy Princenthal; Thames and Hudson, N…
“My work is anti-nature The four-story mountain You will not think form, space, line, contour Just a suggestion of nature gives weight light and heavy light like a feather you get light enough and you levitate”
Agnes Martin (1912–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is God-given is what we call human nature. To fulfil the law of our human nature is what we call the moral law. The cultivation of the moral law is what we call culture.”
Zisi (483–402 BC) said by 402 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated by Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living (1937), p. 143
“The artist's mission is to give shape to what is eternal in nature, to reveal its inherent beauty; he sublimates the shapes of the human body. He shows an enlarged and simplified nature, liberated from all the details, which do not tell us anything. He shows us a work according to the size of his own experience, of his heart and his spirit.”
Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from a speech of Ferdinand Hodler: 'The artist's mission' (held in Freibourg in 1897), first published in 1923 in Zurich; as cited by Paul Westheim in Confessions of Artists - Letters, Memoirs and Observations of …
“The divine Nature feels no pain. ... although He underwent the sufferings in all the fullness of their force, which necessarily causes pain to the sufferers, yet He never so abandoned the powers of His Nature as to feel pain.”
Hilary of Poitiers (315–367) said by 367 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t see enough people standing up to defend the West. We don’t realize how tenuous its legacy is and how it has to be transmitted from generation to generation. The nature of man doesn’t change, and that’s reassuring, since we know the necessary conditions that can save him from himself. The legacy of the West is a guidance system through the natural perils of human nature and behavior.”
Victor Davis Hanson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I really believe that the general, happy mood of the people here [in Elberfeld, Germany] is largely caused by nature. At least I am experiencing that in places like these people are much more natural than in regions where nature offers them little or nothing to subtract their heart for some time from the hypocrisy of the world, and to taste a not-deceitful delight.”
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you like to see what can be transformed from a flat, elementary rural scene - bearing the stamp of nature, the mark of truth - into something most beautiful and graceful? Look at the works of our great [painter] Schelfhout. There you will find represented plain nature at the most elegant, but moreover with a faithfulness and truth, which only Schelfhout can represent.”
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..and then it remains you to re-create your study, the fragment, into a painting. For remember; these are two [different] things: Nature is the material from which we must take. But don't be fooled by the modern theories, that imitating, copying nature would be 'everything'. The goal, the Art's aim is .... to move.. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”
Willem Roelofs (1822–1897) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Roelofs, in a letter to his pupil , 8 June 1886; as cited in Willem Roelofs (1822—1922), by Mr. H. F. W. Jeltes, in Maandschrift Elsevierweekblad..., Jan. 1922, p. 222
“We Jews, we, the destroyers, will remain the destroyers for ever. Nothing that you do will meet our needs and demands. We will destroy because we need a world of our own, a God-world, which it is not in your nature to build. Beyond all temporary alliances with this or that action lies the ultimate split in nature and destiny, the enmity between the Game and God.”
Maurice Samuel (1895–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When most people think of nature, they want to look for perfection and for symmetry and balance, ... But if you really pay attention you are going to see that what actually makes nature tick are the imbalances, the imperfections, the asymmetries.”
Marcelo Gleiser (born 1959) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Physicist Marcelo Gleiser Asks the Big Questions", dartmouth.edu (August 26, 2011)
“...Our spiritual attachment to nature transcends religion, being part of our innermost nature as a thinking species in a mysterious cosmos.”
Marcelo Gleiser (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dartmouth Physicist on Television Special", dartmouth.edu (October 14, 2015)
“Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights.”
Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) first seen 1837 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter XII. Human Rights Not Founded On Sex" (October 2, 1837); reported in Isaac Knapp, Letters to Catherine Beecher (1838).
“The Study of ancient Indian history, therefore, is relevant not only to those who want to understand the true nature of the past that some people want to relive but also to those who want to appreciate the nature of obstacles that hamper the development of the country.”
Ram Sharan Sharma (1919–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Progress is not natural. We are geared to go round and round. The reformer should not expect too much. We are only as far along as we are. It is the nature of granite to be hard. And it is the nature of man to be mechanical.”
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If acorns start growing into theologians, or if women begin turning into pillars of salt, then we may wish to hypothesize about a supernatural influence. But until such time as nature becomes hopelessly unintelligible and unpredictable, we need look no further than nature itself for explanations.”
George H. Smith (1949–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s demonstrably not ‘simply human nature’ to annihilate all around us. No, it’s the nature of this particular human culture. Human potential is so much more, and that’s why conflating the two is so toxic.”
Shaun Chamberlin first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Humanity – not just a virus with shoes", Dark Optimism (2019)
“Our task is to make nature, the forces of nature, into an instrument of universal resuscitation and to become a union of immortal beings. The problem of God's transcendence or immanence will only be solved when humans in their togetherness become an instrument of universal resuscitation, when the divine word becomes our divine action.”
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov (1828–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before talking about resurrection one must state firmly that, just as death is impossible where there exist sinlessness and knowledge that can control the forces of nature, so resurrection is impossible where there exist sin, ignorance and other misfortunes resulting from man's dependence on the blind forces of nature.”
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov (1828–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For our world to be predictable and controllable, it must be mechanistic and linear in nature. But, the illusions of the behaviorists to the contrary notwithstanding, there is nothing less mechanistic and linear in nature than the human mind, whose intricacies and capacities have yet to be matched by even the most sophisticated computers.”
Butler D. Shaffer (1935–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The search for Truth is not about running away from the things of this world but about understanding their ephemeral nature. And more than that, it is about discovering our true nature as an inherent stillness from where even the subtlest movements of phenomena are being perceived.”
Mooji (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It could plausibly be argued that far from Christian theology having hampered the study of nature for fifteen hundred years , it was Greek corruptions of biblical Christianity which had hampered it , and the attitude to nature.”
Mary Hesse (1924–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not sure there’s really that much of a separation between imagination and reality when it comes to creatures. My inspiration is almost always from something nature has created. Nature is relentless and astonishingly diverse in the amount and variety of life it presents. It’s really what parts you put together and how far from reality you want to go when you design creatures.”
Chris Walas (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source