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Nature

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“Nature’s rules are universal, and nature has no taste.”
Colin Tudge (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Interdependence between humans and the natural world is at the root of human existence. To this day we have done everything not to bend down under the overwhelming forces of nature. However, our struggle was not to adapt to nature, but rather to defeat it. Day by day we realize that the fight to win is what is causing defeat, while the fight to seek harmony is the foundation of our existence.”
Khaltmaagiin Battulga (born 1963) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the General Debate Of 75th Session Of The United Nations General Assembly" (24 September 2020)
“But if we can get everybody around the world to love nature, to appreciate nature, and to make sure that we are doing this from deep within our hearts and deep within ourselves, then we can change so much in the world within a short period of time.”
Elizabeth Wathuti (born 1995) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The law is: maintain contact with the Heart of Nature, with the Mind of the Sun and with the Soul of the Universe: there is one Heart in Nature, one Mind in the Sun, one Soul in the Universe, one Spirit in Eternity. And above everything is One God.”
Peter Deunov (1864–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowing nature closely and intimately enhances faith. So loving and caring for nature is a way of protecting your faith.”
Jacob Thoomkuzhy (1930–2025) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young People See Faith Violation In Environmental DegradationUpdated (25 October 2007)
“The optimistic nature finds joy in the very feeling for life; the pessimistic nature finds a feeling for life only in joy.”
Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861–1937) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notebook entry, Summer 1882; cited in Rudolph Binion's Frau Lou (Princeton University Press, 1968) p. 91, translation by Rudolph Binion
“There is not one human nature. There is not some uniform and unchanging way that everybody is and how everybody sees the world. Human nature has different meanings in different times and for different classes and groups in society.”
Bob Avakian (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Please, grab your glass, raise it to Filipinos, to Americans, and other freedom-loving people all around the world who are fighting desperately for their democracies, because they — we believe in the goodness of human nature. We believe that the only way to build is with hope, it’s with inspiration, it is — it’s with love. We will hold the line powered with the best of human nature.”
Maria Ressa (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human being is open to the Kingdom of God in his nature and the Kingdom of God exists with the purpose of belonging to us human creatures. Our human nature has been made and organised in such a way of being directed, despite the freedom of choice given to us, towards the value of the Kingdom of God, for it is only in that value and through it, that it achieves its utter fullness.”
Luigi Pezzuto (born 1946) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio to Bosnia Herzegovina, Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto in Medjugorje (1 August 2018)
“Philosophers often make the mistake of supposing that a subject is worthy of study only if it is found always and everywhere. But many of the most profound and important things are not found everywhere. This is because artifice, which is the alteration of untamed nature, is itself a part of man's nature.”
Yoram Hazony (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mother was a very wise woman; she had the fundamental principles of respect for life, respect for our nature, for the worldview; she was a great believer in nature, in the wacas, in the illas; she guided me in the life of our peoples.”
Rafael Quispe (born 1969) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quispe: No creo que lleguemos al poder este 2014" in ERBOL (4 November 2013).
“Over and over our plans foundered on human nature. On the mediocrity of human nature that betrays its better self, its best ideals, that is unworthy of itself everywhere. "Shocking, the mediocrity of everything - is it not?”
Robert Stone (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless they see their nature, how can people call themselves buddhas? They're liars who deceive others into entering the realm of devils. Unless they see their nature, their preaching of the Twelve-fold Canon is nothing but the preaching of devils. Their allegiance is to Mara, not to the Buddha. Unable to distinguish white from black, how can they escape birth and death?”
Bodhidharma (440–540) said by 540 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is sending us clear signals that we need to change our ways and reverse the trend of biodiversity loss. We can only do this if we put nature at the heart of everything we do,”
Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I studied the nature of sex. The nature of love. I don’t go into relationships for sex because love is paramount to me. There is nothing more riveting than sexual love, together. Real genuine sexual love”
Taiwo Ajai-Lycett (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…perhaps I should be ashamed to own that I had so far strayed from good-nature and good-sense, as to forget, that whatever reproaches may be deserved by some of the Hindus for their moral practices the fundamental principles of morality itself are so firmly implanted in the soul of man that no vicious practice and no mistaken code can change their nature...”
Maria Graham (1785–1842) first seen 1814 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graham, Maria, Letters on India, Longman, Hurst, etc., 1814.quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume IV Chapter2
“Finding words to bridge that divide between the otherness of nature – a swift sleeping on the wing 5,000ft up, and the life-choosing immediacy, the intimate familiarity of the rush of wings past the face – is what most nature writers are striving to do, not wallow in some vanished pastoral world.”
Richard Mabey (born 1941) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In defence of nature writing", The Guardian, 18 July 2013
“We need to see and understand that whatever stands behind nature is what is god. Nature itself, it is the manifestation.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is rich; but everywhere man, the heir of nature, is poor.”
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing actual and real except nature and poetry. (Il n'y a de positif et de réel que la nature et la poésie.)”
Théophile Thoré-Bürger (1807–1869) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface to the "Salon of 1847", p. 382. As cited and translated by Steven Adams in The Barbizon School & The Origins of Impressionism (1994), p. 123.
“It is sometimes said that humanity is at war with nature, but the word ‘war’ implies a two-way conflict. Our chemical onslaught on nature is more akin to genocide.”
Dave Goulson (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Coming whence you do, you doubtless assume that the mores and customs of your own land arise from the workings of simple human nature. But human nature is far from simple, and what appears natural in your own milieu may seem chillingly alien when transported into some foreign sphere.”
Matthew Hughes (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People always say, “Oh, we are controlling the flooding.” But you cannot alter nature; you cannot fight nature… Lake Turkana doesn’t have an outlet; it is a closed lake. So it depends on that balance of inflow versus evaporation. If you reduce that inflow, the level of evaporation increases. Once you have altered the balance of the lake, you have damaged the ecosystem completely.”
Ikal Angelei (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My community of 300,000 people depends on nature for livelihood. We find daily solutions in our forest and in our farmlands. But our natural resources face a lot of challenges deforestation, over-exploitation, encroachment and poor soil conservation. And these are made worse by gender inequality, cultural barriers and little or no knowledge about the goodness of nature.”
Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki (born 1985) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is no longer a free commodity for all to plunder. Nature has value; it is an asset.”
Elizabeth Mrema (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many are born poor, many are beautiful, strong, loyal; few (and yet there are) know how to create the field themselves and then score, but only he, Adriano, is a force of nature, "that" force of nature.”
Roberto Vecchioni (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was no religion in this land, nor was any religion necessary for the Indians. The ancient Indians had a code of law for man to follow. This was framed in accordance with various truths working in nature. The law of the existence of nature and its creation was observed in all its detail and the law for man to follow as copied in accordance with it. This was called Dharma.”
Ekkirala Krishnamacharya (1926–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture
“Christ's resurrection is not a miracle. The God who through the Son assumed human nature, after his death on the cross reassumes his divine and immortal nature.”
Carlo Maria Martini (1927–2012) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview of Eugenio Scalfari, Ragionando con Martini di peccato e Resurrezione, repubblica.it (May 13, 2010}
“Over the course of ten thousand years, from the dawn of civilization to the 16th century, all cultures had deluded themselves into thinking they knew how to decipher the Book of Nature without ever posing a single question to Its Author. That is why no culture had been given the privilege of discovering a fundamental Law of Nature.”
Antonino Zichichi (1929–2026) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Antonino Zichichi: l'alleanza tra fede e scienza è possibile. From an interview of Paolo Centofanti, Zenit (January 30, 2008)
“I’ve always been interested in the nature of the universe, nature of reality, consciousness, the meaning of life, all of these big questions. That’s what I wanted to spend my life working on.”
Mustafa Suleyman (born 1984) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in David Shariatmadari, ‘I hope I’m wrong’: the co-founder of DeepMind on how AI threatens to reshape life as we know it (September 2, 2023)
“Material forms, visual consciousness, visual contact, the feelings unpleasant or pleasant or neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant that arise conditioned by visual contact are empty, empty of eternal and unchanging nature, empty of anything belonging to self. Why is this so? This is nature as it is. Ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are also thus.”
Sheng Yen (1931–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An ostrich took a mate for life. It was their nature. Why try and mess up nature? Was the new prosperity not enough for them? …Where would it end?”
Dalene Matthee (1938–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]hose persons seem to apply their thoughts but to a very indifferent purpose in the study of Nature, that overlook this part of Astronomy, from whence the principal and most simple Laws of Nature are to be learn'd.”
David Gregory (mathematician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The principle Teacher of detachment in Nature is often Grandmother Ocean, who is the primary nature example of flexibility and resilience. (p119)”
Angeles Arrien (1940–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the most common forms of denial of women and nature is what I will term backgrounding, their treatment as providing the background to a dominant, foreground sphere of recognized achievement or causation. This backgrounding of women and nature is deeply embedded in the rationality of the economic system and in the structures of contemporary society.”
Val Plumwood (1939–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have just seen a report ... on the congress of families in Verona, where the people interviewed who attended the congress spoke out on the subject of homosexuality, all stating in the same way that homosexuality is wrong because it is against nature. Making the equation against nature equals wrong. I am always pleasantly surprised to see extremist catholics making this kind of equation.”
Fedez (born 1989) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an Instagram video. As quoted in Simone Pierini, Fedez attacca i partecipanti al congresso delle famiglie di Verona: «Gay contro natura?», ilmessaggero.it (April 4, 2019)
“I spoke at the United Nations General Assembly at a session organized by the State of Bolivia on harmony with nature, and I made the point that you can’t just tack on harmony with nature to a fundamentally imbalanced system.”
Riane Eisler (born 1931) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The nature part of human nature is to make copies of ourselves — as it is with any other .”
Alan Weisman (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see, when competition ceases, effort ceases. Human nature is human nature, after all. The Socialists forgot that.”
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole of Nature exists on the principle of vicarious suffering; and to reject Christianity because of the doctrine of the Atonement is to reject Nature itself on the same account.”
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many have argued that a vacuum does not exist, others claim it exists only with difficulty in spite of the repugnance of nature; I know of no one who claims it easily exists without any resistance from nature.”
Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647) first seen 1644 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a letter written in 1644. Quoted in Eric S. Rabkin, Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination (Praeger, 2005) p. 56
“It is not a matter of religious beliefs. It is a natural reality that does not come from ideological or cultural tendencies, but from natural principals that proceed from the very nature of the human person. If we cut ourselves off from the common denominator of human nature...What universal reference would their be in humanity to guarantee our human rights?”
Nicolás Cotugno Fanizzi (born 1938) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Uruguayan Parliament votes on the law on reproductive health, with the partial decriminalization of abortion; Archbishop of Montevideo says “it is not a matter of religious beliefs, but of fundamental human and ethical …
“Poverty is a human-nature disaster. We have to understand the broad context of poverty and climate change, and the impact of both on humans and nature. We must look at ending poverty from a much broader scope than just social justice. Both poverty and climate change require a fight against all forms of injustice.”
Antoinette Lombard first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://stias.ac.za/2023/08/poverty-as-a-human-nature-disaster/
“[M]odern observers... concede that s and experience work together... "nature and nurture", not "nature versus nurture".”
Gary Marcus (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a deep resonance with the environment. My spiritual practice is feeling the divine, entering stillness, then feeling the Higher Worlds. When one does this, one develops a very keen affinity with nature. Divine Energy is in Nature.”
Gina Lopez (1953–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Too often, we like to think of ourselves as somehow being separate from nature when the truth is we belong to nature.”
Zolani Mahola (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ecstatic angels admired the work of the Word of God and sang praises of love; they saw far away, on those seas of splendour, what He would be when He became incarnate, they saw in the prophetic light His human nature, shining with the divine nature in the unity of the very Person of the Word, through whom everything was made at that moment, and they felt invited to worship. (p. 1620)”
Dolindo Ruotolo (1882–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most comedians are questioning by nature. There are a solid handful of comedians who make fun of religion that are not atheist, just not fans of religion or specific religious institutions. There are also a higher percentage of atheists per capita in comedy due to the nature of what we do.”
Ian Harris (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First, I identify an analogous problem in nature and borrow from it. It is smarter to borrow from nature than to reinvent the wheels.”
Philip Emeagwali (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is said that nature abhors a vacuum (a saying that has always struck this author as unusually dumb—since the vast majority of the natural universe is in fact a splendid vacuum, nature must in fact love a vacuum), but any perceived voids in the law books do tend to get filled in due course.”
Harold Lewis (1923–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source