Nature quotes

Addison Joseph 1672-1719

A perfect tragedy is the noblest production of human nature.

Alfvén Hannes 1872-1960

As both the Mercury and Apollo programs have shown, our science and technology are so powerful that, if an intense effort is made, we can do almost anything we want in say, ten years - provided we are not in conflict with the laws of nature.

Aristotle 384-322 BC

Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies.

Aristotle 384-322 BC

Politics

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.

Arnold Matthew 1822-1888

Nature, with equal mind,
Sees all her sons at play,
Sees man control the wind,
The wind sweep man away.

Arnold Matthew 1822-1888

The nice sense of measure is certainly not one of nature's gifts to her English children ... we have all of us yielded to infatuation at some moment of our lives.

Aurelius Marcus 121-180

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

Aurelius Marcus 121-180

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

Bacon Francis 1561-1626

Essays „Of Studies"

They perfect nature and are perfected by experience.

Bacon Francis 1561-1626

Novum Organum

Nautre cannot be ordered about, except by obeying her.

Bagehot Walter 1826-1877

To a great experience one thing is essential - an experiencing nature.

Bailey Philip James 1816-1902

Art is man's nature; nature is God's art.

Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de 1732-1799

Nature says to a woman: „Be beautiful if you can, wise if you want to, but
be respected, that is essential."

Beecher Henry Ward 1813-1887

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

Billings Josh 1818-1885

Nature never makes any blunders; when she makes a fool she means it.

Boese Paul

Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience.

Browne Sir Thomas 1605-1682

Religio Medici

All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.

Burns Robert 1759-1796

„Bonnie Lesley"

To see her is to love her,
And love but her for ever,
For Nature made her what she is,
And ne'er made anither!

Carman Bliss 1861-1929

The greatest joy in nature is the absence of man.

Collins William 1721-1759

‘Verses addressed to Sir Thomas Hanmer'

Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part,
Nautre in him was almost lost in Art.

Davies Sir John 1569-1626

„Orchestra, or a Poem of Dancing"

Kind nature first doth cause all things to love;
Love makes them dance, and in just order move.

Defoe Daniel 1660-1731

The History of the Kentish Petition
Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could.

Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882

Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them.

Epictetus AD c.50-130

Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

Gandhi Mahatma 1869-1948

Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises.
The monotony of necessary occupations is exhilarating and life-giving.

Geddes Sir Auckland

So many come to the sickroom thinking of themselves as men of science fighting disease and not as healers with a little knowledge helping nature to get a sick man well.

Gibbons Stella 1902-1989

Cold Comfort Farm

Every year, in the fulness o' summer, when the sukebind hangs heavy from the wains ... ‘tes the same. And when the spring comes her hour is upon her again. ‘Tes the hand of Nature and we women cannot escape it.

Gilbert W.S. 1836-1911

Jolanthe

I often think it's comical
How Nature always does contrive
That every boy and every gal,
That's born into the world alive,
Is either a little Liberal,
Or else a little Consrvative!

Gilbert W.S. 1836-1911

Princess Ida

Man is Nature's sole mistake!

Goethe Johann von 1749-1832

Art is called art because it is not nature.

Hall Radclyffe 1883-1943

The Well of Loneliness

You're neither unnatural, nor abominable, nor mad; you're as much a part of what people call nature as anyone else; only you're unexplained as yet.

Hepburn Katharine

in The African Queen

"Nature, Mr Allnutt, is what we are put into this world to rise above."

Holmes Oliver Wendell 1809-1894

Nature is in earnest when she makes a woman.

Holmes Oliver Wendell 1809-1894

Nature, when she invented, manufactured and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left.

Housman A.E. 1859-1936

Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.

Huxley Aldous 1894-1963

Do What you Will

Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.

Inge William R. 1860-1954

The whole of nature is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive.

Ingersoll Robert G. 1833-1899

Some Reasons Why

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences.

Jonson Ben c.1573-1637

Volpone

Honour! tut, a breath,
There's no such thing in nature; a mere term
Invented to awe fools.

Kupcinet Irv

Air pollution is turning Mother Nature prematurely grey.

Lamartine Alphonse de 1790-1869

Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who remembers heaven.

Landor Walter Savage 1775-1864

‘Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher'

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife;
Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art.

Langer Susanne 1895-1985

Mind

Art is the objectification of feeling, and the subjectification of nature.

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm 1646-1716

Letter to S. Clarke

We should like Nature to go no further; we should like it to be finite, like our mind; but this is to ignore the greatness and majesty of the Author of things.

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519

Human subtilety ... will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

Locke John 1632-1704

An Essay concerning Human

Understanding