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“Man reacts upon and toward the external universe in three ways, namely, by his active nature ; by his intellectual nature ; by his moral nature — that is, he acts upon it, thinks about it, and feels toward it.”
Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It says in the sutras that buddha nature pervades all beings. But this does not mean that there is some thing which is buddha nature. Rather, when all the confusion of samsara is cleared away, what remains is buddha nature.”
Ken McLeod (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember that no matter what your conception of God or the Gods, or the motive creative force of the Universe, Nature and Nature's Laws are the work of that force. And, the first or highest law of Nature is the preservation of one's own kind. The dominate religion and occupation governments of the once White nations are self-evidently determined to exterminate our species.”
David Lane (white nationalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's very, very dangerous to lose contact with living nature. … In the big cities, there are people who have never seen living nature, all things are products of humans … The bigger the town, the less they see and understand nature.”
Albert Hofmann (1906–2008) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders his 'Problem Child." (7 January 2006)
“Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like nature, has to be distinguished from the systematic study of it, which is criticism.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus society is born, as something required by nature, and (because this nature is human nature) as something accomplished through a work of reason and will, and freely consented to. Man is a political animal, which means that the human person craves political life, communal life, not only with regard to the family community, but with regard to the civil community.”
Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rights of Man (1945). London: Geoffrey Bles, pp. 7–8.
“Man is completely out of phase with nature. Nature is woman. Man is the intruder. The man who re-attunes himself with nature is the man who de-mans himself or eliminates himself as man.”
Jill Johnston (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are wont to call that human reasoning which we apply to Nature the anticipation of Nature (as being rash and premature) and that which is properly deduced from things the interpretation of Nature.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bicycle had what is called the 'wabbles', and had them very badly. In order to keep my position, a good many things were required of me, and in every instance the thing required was against nature. Against nature, but not against the laws of nature.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If he is not Nature herself, he is certainly the nature of Nature, and is the soul of the Soul of the world, if he is not the soul herself.”
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) said by 1600 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)
“The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now, things that are have kinship with things that are from the beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the first cause of all that is true.”
Marcus Aurelius (121–180) said by 180 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature. ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Wright Style (1992) by Carla Lind, p. 3
“If the abstraction is truly made well above the animal nature in man—his gregarious nature—it will keep the ancient rituals of his higher nature as long as possible. Human abstractions if true usually become ritual.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature as conceived by many ecologists, and expressed philosophically by James Lovelock and others, is not the passive, dead, value-neutral nature of mechanistic science but is akin to the active, "naturing" nature of Spinoza. It is all-inclusive, creative (as natura naturans), infinitely diverse, and alive in the broad sense of Spinozistic so-called panpsychism.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No desire can be termed outlandish, my dear; all desires can be found in nature. When nature created human beings, it delighted in differentiating their sexual leanings as much as their faces; and we should no more be astonished by the diversity of our features than by the diversity that nature has placed in our affections.”
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The universe stores the results of its operations as nature. I do not confuse nature with reality. At a fundamental level, reality is the set of rules the results of whose interactions are nature. Part of the problem of reconciling quantum mechanics with larger-scale phenomena comes from mistaking results for rules—they have been built into our brains, good for survival, but not for physics.”
Greg Bear (1951–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What a scandal to hear nature deprecated in comparison to Greek statues by one who knows neither one nor the other without acknowledging that the smallest part of Nature confounds and amazes those who know most. What statue or cast of it might there be that is not copied from divine nature?”
Francisco Goya (1746–1828) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a report in 1792 - Goya wrote to the Academy of San Fernando, on 'teaching art'; as quoted in Francisco Goya y Licientis, Janis Tomlinson, Phaodon 1999, p. 70
“It used to be said, that in places like this, nature eventually failed to support man, the truth is exactly the reverse, here man failed to support nature. Ten thousand years ago man regarded the natural world as divine, but as he domesticated animals and plants so nature lost some of its mystery and appeared to be little more than a larder that could be raided with impunity.”
David Attenborough (born 1926) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[visiting Jackson Pollock’s studio]: You do not work from nature. This is no good, you will repeat yourself. You work by heart, not from nature. [Pollock reacted: 'I am nature]”
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature has no reverence towards life. Nature treats life as though it were the most valueless thing in the world.... Nature does not act by purposes.”
Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear.”
Jan Smuts (1870–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the artist communication with nature remains the most essential condition. The artist is human; himself nature; part of nature within natural space.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Klee's statement written in 1923, in 'Paths of the Study of Natura' (Wage dar Natur studiums), Paul Klee; in Yearbook of the Staatlich. Bauhaus, Weimar, 1919-1923, Bauhaus Verlag, Weimar, 1923
“Nature then, is just nature. I admit I am very impressed with it. The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can do for is to put some order in ourselves. When a man ploughs his field at the right time, it means just that.”
Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De Kooning's lecture Trans/formation, at Studio 35, 1950.
“In the creation of a garden, the architect invites the partnership of the Kingdom of Nature. In a beautiful garden, the majesty of Nature is ever present, but Nature reduced to human proportions and thus transformed into the most efficient haven against the aggressiveness of contemporary life.”
Luis Barragán (1902–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The recognition of God is easier through the nature. Find the presence of God by apprehending the nature, and comprehend the Divine allusions through the nature”
Elia M. Ramollah (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He distrusted all laws, even the best, while at the same time recognizing the necessity for them. For Joenes, a law took its goodness from the nature of the men who administered it. When the nature of those men changed, as Joenes believed was inevitable, then the nature of the law changed, too. When this happened, new laws and new lawgivers had to be found.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under the flowing robes of nature, where all looks arbitrary and accidental, there is an artificiality of the most rigid kind. The natural, we now perceive, sinks into and merges in a Higher Artificial. ...we conclude, when we attain a knowledge of the artificiality which is at the basis of nature, that nature is wholly the production of a Being resembling, but infinitely greater than ourselves.”
Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Finally we should note the basic assumption of the classical laboratory-namely, that nature is neither capricious nor secretive. If nature were capricious, she would tell one observer one thing and another observer a quite different thing... Also nature is not secretive, in the sense that she will not forever hide certain aspects of her being...”
C. West Churchman (1913–2004) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 57; as cited in: Carolyn Merchant (1982) "Isis' Consciousness Raised", in: Isis, Vol. 73, No. 3. (1982), pp. 398-409
“So, music does not attempt to imitate Nature's sounds, but it does interpet and embody emotions awakened by Nature through a convention of its own, in a way to be aesthetically pleasing. In some such way, we, taking our hint from Nature, construct decoratively pleasing harmonies and symphonies of color expression of our sentiments.”
Jean Metzinger (1883–1956) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Metzinger in 'The Wild Men of Paris', by Gelett Burgess , in 'The Architectural Record, Vol XXVII, May 1910, p. 414
“Human beings, having, above all creatures, received the power of reason... need to be aware where nature is unaware. Nature reaches its culmination in humans, but human consciousness has not its essence in itself or nature.”
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm (2009), "Linnaeus and homo religiosus," Universitet, p. 83.
“Popular thought, supported by desires common to all human beings, readily accepts the view that mind is essentially different from matter, that its laws are in every respect different from the laws of material nature, and that the brain, being a part of the material nature, is simply the special tool used by the mind in its intercourse with nature.”
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important insights that have come to me usually occur while walking in nature, particularly hiking in the high mountains. In the wilderness nature can enter into our consciousness and cleanse our minds of human-centered compulsions. I think that liberation is like wandering off into nature, climbing up a high mountain, and not coming back to the lowlands of human society.”
David Frawley (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a religious point of view the triadic classification of being as nature, spirit, and God has no validity. There is only the dyad: nature, which includes the human spirit, and God. The only way man can break the bonds of nature is by cleaving to God; by acting in compliance with the divine will rather than in accordance with the human will.”
Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One, the lasting nature of life: Life may appear to be one span after another, arising and ceasing, however, within the arising and ceasing, there is its unchanging nature, which is always timeless, coexisting with space, and nature.”
Hsing Yun (1927–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science... may be viewed as man's supreme effort to find himself in that perplexing pattern which he calls Nature. ...Has he succeeded in achieving some measure of harmony with Nature? Or has he merely managed to transfer to Nature the irreconcilable duality within himself?”
Tobias Dantzig (1884–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Homosexual conduct is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God upon which this nation and our laws are predicated.”
Roy Moore (born 1947) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: D.H. v. H.H. (February 15, 2002), quoted in
“[A]ccording to Weyl, complexity is essential in understanding the concept of a law of nature. If laws of nature may be arbitrarily complex, he argued, the very concept... becomes vacuous. What difference would remain... if the laws meant to explain them were as complex as the phenomena they are meant to explain? Laws of nature must be simple.”
Gregory Chaitin (born 1947) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Doing Mathematics Differently" Inference (Feb 2016) Vol. 2, No. 1. Ref: Hermann Weyl, The Open World: Three Lectures on the Metaphysical Implications of Science (1932)
“What part should nature play in a work of art? Where should the line be drawn? And from the standpoint of practical procedure - should one work directly from nature or merely study and remember it? Too much freedom frightens me, poor imitator that I am, and yet my head is filled with so many images evoked by what I see around me at all times that nature seems insignificant and banal.”
Paul Sérusier (1864–1927) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from a letter to Maurice Dennis, 1889; as quoted by John Rewald in Pierre Bonnard; MoMA - distribution, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1918, p. 14 - note 7
“I love nature, what is not beautiful in nature, there are no ugly things. Sometimes the world oppresses me and then I always go back to nature, the source of all things. (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)”
Gerrit Benner (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fortunately however, is that [painting] school where Mother Nature is placed in the foreground, and where only she is consulted to representate 'truth' on the canvas or panel. Only he knows the secrets of the manifold diversity of nature. His painting is a faithful copy of nature - which is the highest praise for a painter..”
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember I stood stunned as a boy, in front of the paintings of the old [Dutch] masters in our museums, how they let speak Nature to you. If I have learned to see nature by someone, it was by our old masters. But most by Nature itself. (translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)”
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch (1824–1903) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in an interview with J.H. Rössing, at the end of his life, c. 1902; as cited in Eind goed Al goed, de carriere van J.H. Weissenbruch, by Sander Kletter
“These helical patterns are common in many animals with horns, such as the ram or eland... [I]n combat... they do not break, because nature introduces... the formation of spirals within spirals... nature’s way of supporting one structure within itself. In a larger sense, nature introduces a harmony of structures from both outside and inside the visible shape.”
Gerald Buckberg (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he rural problem is (1) loss of kinship between men who, through ignorance, forget their relatedness, and (2) the hostility of nature to humans, which is felt most acutely if not exclusively in villages, where people confront the blind force directly; whereas townsfolk, being remote from nature, may think that man lives at one with nature.”
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov (1828–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m close to nature, and I draw a lot inspiration from nature. And I think my connection to Tolkien was also through nature. I think that’s how I made that connection to his writing: the love of everything green and good.”
Howard Shore (born 1946) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: INTERVIEW: Howard Shore (April 27, 2018)
“BJP has failed to run the government. It wants to confuse the public by bringing new laws. Allah has created the world. How many people will be born in the world is in the hands of nature. One should not collide with nature. Birth is the law of Allah and it is not right to collide with nature. It will only harm,” said Shafiqur Rahman Barq.”
Shafiqur Rahman Barq (1930–2024) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jul 2021 ‘Giving birth to multiple kids is our birthright and Allah’s law’
“To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddha's results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings–but no buddha.”
Bodhidharma (440–540) said by 540 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our lives depend on the invaluable services provided by biodiversity and nature. The air we breathe, the water we drink, food security, nature-based medicines, tourism revenues, and our livelihoods all come from nature,”
Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me, it involves connecting more with nature. Going outside and stepping into nature. Experiencing its beauty and its importance. It is only when we appreciate alluring essence of Mother Nature, then, together, we would have the urge to make our planet great again.”
Adenike Akinsemolu (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Tis grace to sing to nature, and to pray The God of nature, out of His large heart, To grant us knowledge of His human way; This is the whole of nature and of art.”
Philip Henry Savage (1868–1899) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [Untitled]; First Poems & Fragments (1895), p. 3