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“Perhaps you see big trees and little trees and think that big trees are older than little trees. You also might notice that there are more little trees than big trees, and so not every little tree grows up to be a big tree – most die young. But the little trees must come from somewhere, namely seeds produced and shed by the bigger trees. These are the core ideas of population ecology.”
John Pastor first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Pastor, Mathematical Ecology of Populations and Ecosystems (2008), Ch. 1 : What is mathematical ecology and why should we do it?
“There were many seas. The sea roared like a tiger. The sea whispered in your ear like a friend telling you secrets. The sea clinked like small change in a pocket. The sea thundered like avalanches. The sea hissed like sandpaper working on wood. The sea sounded like someone vomiting. The sea was dead silent.”
Yann Martel (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every time a good child dies, an angel of God comes down to earth. He takes the child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings, and flies with it all over the places the child loved on earth. The angel plucks a large handful of flowers, and they carry it with them up to God, where the flowers bloom more brightly than they ever did on earth.”
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the sea that whitens the roof. The sea drifts through the winter air. It is the sea that the north wind makes. The sea is in the falling snow. This gloom is the darkness of the sea.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mankind like waterfowl are sprung from the sea, the sea of soul Risen from that sea, why should the bird make here his home? Nay, we are pearls in that sea, therein we all abide, Else why does wave follow wave from the sea of soul.”
Rumi (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Again, if the world is destroyed, it must needs either be destroyed according to nature or against nature. Against nature is impossible, for that which is against nature is not stronger than nature. If according to nature, there must be another nature which changes the nature of the world: which does not appear.”
Sallustius (400–400) said by 400 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The inferiorization of human qualities and aspects of life associated with necessity, nature and women—of nature-as-body, of nature-as-passion or emotion, of nature as the pre-symbolic, of nature-as-primitive, of nature-as-animal and of nature as the feminine—continues to operate to the disadvantage of women, nature and the quality of human life.”
Val Plumwood (1939–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago? Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them every one. Oh, when will they ever learn?”
Pete Seeger (1919–2014) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (1955)
“It's sort of like a mockery in a way of reality because they think everything is smiles and sweetness and flowers when there is something bitter to taste. And to pretend there isn't is foolish. I mean the ones that wonder around and know, at the same time, and yet wear flowers, and they deserve to wear flowers. And they've earned their smile...you can tell by people's eyes.”
Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you could see what these flowers are. [Morandi's remark, circa 1917 - to the writer Raimondi from Bologna, indicating flowers in the corner of a reproduction of a painting by w:El Greco – beneath the feet of angels and saints]). No modern painter has painted flowers like these. Perhaps only Renoir”
Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Morandi; as cited in Morandi 1894 – 1964, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco, Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, 2008; p. 48
“Good deeds stand tall like a green pine, evil deeds bloom like flowers; The pine is not as brilliant as the flowers, it seems. When the frost comes, the pine will still stand tall, While the flowers, withered, can be seen no more”
Nasir Khusraw (1004–1088) said by 1088 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Chinese hold some particular kinds of flowers in great veneration, especially the , which they call Too Chong Fa: its flowers are deemed grateful to the gods; and, accordingly. at the commencement of the ,when the plant is generally in blossom, large branches with flowers are placed in all the temples as an acceptable new year's offering.”
Henry Phillips (horticulturist) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (quote from p. xviii; 1st edition 1824)
“orientale can produce a lush effect under trees—it is much too coarse for small gardens but can be splendid where something elephantine is needed. The flowers come before the leaves; rather naked-looking pink stems of blue -like flowers in early spring are followed by huge hairy leaves, handsome in the right setting.”
Beth Chatto (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us get reacquainted with the miracle that is your breath: all the trees, flowers, and plants on this earth make it possible for you to breathe. All living things on this earth are breathing in and breathing out the same air that you are.”
Yumi Sakugawa (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trees, they die dead like people too. They need care too. The earth around us needs care. We come from earth, we eat from earth, and one day we must go back to earth, so why are we treating it so bad?”
Abi Daré wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rain, the rain, the rain. You can't even hear it outside the window but still it's a sad thing. Rain, the grade school teachers say, makes the trees and flowers grow, but we're not trees and flower, and so many grade school teachers are single.”
Daniel Handler (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze. "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs" – He was very upset as he shouted and puffed – "What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So what, then, is the use of art — our art, Black art? Black art must expose the enemy, praise the people and support the revolution.… We do not need pictures of oranges in a bowl or trees standing innocently in the midst of a wasteland. If we must paint oranges and trees, let our guerrillas be eating those oranges for strength and using those trees for cover.”
Maulana Karenga (born 1941) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Black Cultural Nationalism" in The Black Aesthetic (1971)
“Trees produce oxygen and purify the air we breathe by removing harmful particles from the atmosphere, Studies have shown that by spending quality time among trees and in green spaces, the social benefit of trees to reduce the amount of stress that we carry around with us in our daily lives is significantly enhanced.”
Bidemi Lafiaji Okuneye (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is what we see, The Hill, the Afternoon— Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee, Nay—Nature is Heaven.Nature is what we hear, The Bobolink, the Sea— Thunder, the Cricket— Nay,—Nature is Harmony.Nature is what we know But have no art to say, So impotent our wisdom is To Her simplicity.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou wast that all to me, love, For which my soul did pine — A green isle in the sea, love, A fountain and a shrine, All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers, And all the flowers were mine.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) first seen 1834 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To One in Paradise", st. 1 (1834).
“Call us not weeds, we are flowers of the Sea, For lovely and bright and gay tinted are we, And quite independent of sun's fire or showers- Then call us not weeds! We are ocean's bright flowers, Not nursed like the plants of a summer parterre, Where gales are but sighs of an evening air, Our exquisite, fragile and delicate forms Are nursed by the Ocean and rocked by the Storms.”
Petar Beron (1799–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many years ago I was a boy drowning in the sea. I am always drowning in the sea... down amongst the dead men, deep down. There is a peace in the sea back down to our origins... when the last man has taken his breath the sea will still be remaining. It washes everything clean. It holds within it forever the boy suspended in its body and the streaming hair and the open eyes.”
Dennis Nilsen (1945–2018) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Brian Masters (2011), Killing for Company, Random House, p. 49,
“I am not at sea because I object to bad treatment, poor food, poor wages, and worse prospects. I am not at sea because very early I discovered that it is a comfortless, weariful and thankless life—a life compact of hardness and sordidness such as shore people can scarcely conceive. I am not at sea because I dislike being a pawn with the sea for a board and the shipowners for players.”
William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Is the Mercantile Navy Worth Joining?—Certainly Not.’ 1905. The Grand Magazine, September 1905. Reprinted in The Wandering Soul: Glimpses of a Life: A Compendium of Rare and Unpublished Works. Ed. Jane Frank. Leyburn: …
“SEA-MATION is a service I'd see advertised all the time. The gimmick is cremation plus burial at sea. All in one: SEA-MATION. A fellow with a grey toupee gives the pitch while they continue flashing the 800 phone number of the company on the bottom of the screen. SEA-MATION had a sale going, a 'pre-need special.' Ordering now saved you ninety-nine ninety-five. One week only.”
Dan Fante (1944–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every sea is sea. Why do we foolishly blame the Cyclades or the Hellespont, and the Sharp Isles? They merit not their evil fame; for why, when I had escaped them, did the harbour of Scarphaea drown me? Let who will pray for fair weather to bring him home; Aristagoras, who is buried here, knows that the sea is the sea.”
Antipater of Thessalonica (101 BC–50) said by 50 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Buy my flowers—O buy—I pray! The blind girl comes from afar; If the earth be as fair as her children say, These flowers her children are!”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So much to learn! Old Nature's ways Of glee and gloom with rapt amaze To study, probe, and paint – brown earth, Salt sea, blue heavens, their tilth and dearth, Birds, grasses, trees – the natural things That throb or grope or poise on wings.”
Richard Francis Burton (misattributed) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Richard Eugene Burton, Memorial Day, And Other Poems (1897), 'So Much to Learn', p. 8
“Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but can not steer their feet Clear of the grave.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Who owns the earth? Did we want the earth that we should wander on it? Did we need the earth that we were never still upon it? Whoever needs the earth shall have the earth: he shall be still upon it, he shall rest within a little place, he shall dwell in one small room for ever.”
Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book 1. This excerpt is also cited in a short story "Forever and the Earth" (1950) by Ray Bradbury.
“The nature is pleased to nature The nature overcomes the nature The Nature dominated nature.”
Osthanes (born 500 BC) first seen 1832 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Synesios in a comment about Demokritos, in K. C. Schmieder, The History of Alchemy (2005) p. 64; a translation of Geschichte der Alchemie (1832).
“Law steps in where nature fails: virtually everywhere. Laws create nature—a male nature and a female nature and natural intercourse—by telling errant, unnatural human beings what to do and what not to do to protect and express their real nature—the real man, the real female, the real hierarchy that nature or God created putting man on top.”
Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature gives a parting smile. As yet the blue-bells linger on the sod That copes the sheepfold ring; and in the woods A second blow of many flowers appears, Flowers faintly ting'd and breathing no perfume. But fruits, not blossoms, form the woodland wreath That circles Autumn's brow.”
James Grahame (1765–1811) first seen 1805 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Autumn Sabbath Walk", l. 28. The Sabbath, ... to which are now added, Sabbath Walks (New York, 1805) p. 83. Variants: 'yielding' instead of 'breathing'
“There he was. The infant Titus. His eyes were open but he was quite still. The puckered-up face of the newly-born child, old as the world, wise as the roots of trees. Sin was there and goodness, love, pity and horror, and even beauty for his eyes were pure violet. Earth’s passions, earth’s griefs, earth’s incongruous, ridiculous humours—dormant, yet visible in the wry pippin of a face.”
Mervyn Peake (1911–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was four thousand feet high. And more. In the heart of stone of the Andes. The open mouth of the earth surprised me, with its deep color. Like one of her fruits, the coffee bean...A difficult earth, only a bit of earth stretched over the sleeping eye of a volcano. One day she awakes, yawns and swallows an entire village with its men, its screams and its trees. (September 1963)”
Raquel Jodorowsky (1927–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the highly improbable event of his being asked to nominate the one most un-Jewish thing he could think of, Sefton Goldberg would have been hard pressed to decide between Nature – that's to say birds, trees, flowers, and country walks – and football – that's to say beer, bikies, mud, and physical pain.”
Howard Jacobson (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the boundless plain careering By an unseen compass steering, Wildly flying, reappearing, — With untamed fire their broad eyes glowing In every step a grand pride showing, Of no servile moment knowing, —Happy as the trees and flowers, In their instinct cradled hours, Happier in fuller powers, —See the wild herd nobly ranging, Nature varying, not changing, Lawful in their lawless ranging.”
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A fish swims through the sea While the sea is in a certain sense, Contained within the fish! Oh, what am I to think Of what the writing of a thousand lifetimes Could not explain If all the forest trees were pens And all the oceans - ink?”
Aaron Weiss wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature repairs her ravages, but not all. The uptorn trees are not rooted again; the parted hills are left scarred; if there is a new growth, the trees are not the same as the old, and the hills underneath their green vesture bear the marks of the past rending. To the eyes that have dwelt on the past, there is no thorough repair.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world isn’t an inheritance from our forbearers but a gift we pass to our children. Let us wrap it in the green of trees and the serenity of nature as we aim to plant 10 billion trees by 2032.”
Rachel Ruto (born 1968) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking in Kakamega during the celebration of Kakamega Forest (17 November 2022)
“I love diversity in Nature. I appreciate the difference in colors on people, animals, and flowers. My walks in Nature stimulate my mind, and make it easier for me to get ideas for my paintings. My imagination helps me to discover hidden images in nature, and I include them on my canvases. Those little ghosts frequently get enhanced as I paint, and they appear and disappear on my paintings.”
Alfredo Arreguín (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is alive. It is you, God. Looking out I can see no death. The earth moves, the sea moves, the wind goes on its exuberant journeys. Many creatures reflect you, the flowers your color, the tides the precision of your calculations. There is nothing too ample for you to overflow, nothing so small that your workmanship is not revealed.”
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, what shall we say then, but that earth threatened often Shall live on for ever that such things may be, That the dry seed shall quicken, the hard earth shall soften, And the spring-bearing birds flutter north o'er the sea, That earth's garden may bloom round my love's feet and me?”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature chose for a tool, not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent or eroding rain, but the tender snow-flowers noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries, the offspring of the sun and sea.”
John Muir (1838–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature never "fails." Nature complies with its own laws. Nature is the law. When Man lacks understanding of Nature's laws and a Man-contrived structure buckles unexpectedly, it does not fail. It only demonstrates that Man did not understand Nature's laws and behaviors. Nothing failed. Man's knowledge or estimating was inadequate.”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In "How Little I Know", in Saturday Review (12 Nov 1966), 152. Excerpted in Buckminster Fuller and Answar Dil, Humans in Universe (1983), 31.
“A highly developed moral nature joined to an undeveloped intellectual nature, an undeveloped artistic nature, and a very limited religious nature, is of necessity repulsive. It represents a bit of human nature — a good bit, of course, but a bit only — in disproportionate, unnatural and revolting prominence.”
Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like nature but not its substitutes. Naturalist art, illusionism, is a substitute for nature. I remember that in arguing with Piet Mondrian [in Paris, 1920's], he opposed art to nature saying that art is artificial and nature is natural. I do not share this opinion. I do not think that nature is in natural opposition to art. Art's origins are natural.”
Jean Arp (1886–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then [speaking of his loosely figurative work of the 1930's, in Germany] I was still under nature, not that I was imitating it; now [1957] I am above nature. But everything comes from nature, I too am part of nature; my memory comes from nature, too.”
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in: 'Hans Hofmann', Elizabeth Pollet, (interview of his 1957 Whitney Museum exhibition), Arts Magazine, May 1957 (article: 30-33)
“Shine, ye stars of heaven, On a world of pain! See old Time destroying All our hoarded gain; All our sweetest flowers, Every stately shrine, All our hard-earned glory, Every dream divine! Shine, ye stare of heaven, On the rolling years! See how Time, consoling, Dries the saddest tears, Bids the darkest storm-clouds Pass in gentle rain, While upspring in glory Flowers and dreams again!”
Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source