Natural World Quotes

“George didn't do quiet or subtle. His big paws kicked up rocks as he stretched into his own version of a freight train.”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“When first I arrived in the woods, I became aware of how unprepared I was for what I was about to experience."”
― John-Paul Cernak, The Odyssey of a Hippie Marijuana Grower

“Josh tasted the decaying leaves of autumn in the cold mountain air.”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“When a trapper entered the valley, I reflected back on my life as an Indian." I'm sure as an Indian living on the plains, I trapped animals for their fur and for their meat, I took what I needed for survival, but doing it for profit somehow rubbed me the wrong way”
― John-Paul Cernak, The Odyssey of a Hippie Marijuana Grower

“Tonight the sun has died like an Emperor... great scarlet arcs of silk... saffron... green... crimson... and the blaze of Venus to remind one of the absolute and the infinite... and along the lower rim of beauty lay the hard harsh line of the hills...”
― John Coldstream, Ever, Dirk: The Bogarde Letters

“Some 5,000 of Wallace’s 8,050 bird specimens he collected during eight years in the Malay Archipelago were actually collected by Ali. None are named after the young man.”
― Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, "Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird": Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace's Faithful Companion

“I wonder what Ali thought about Wallace? How did he view this tall, gawky, bearded eccentric man? Did Ali defend Wallace when villagers thought he was an evil demon? Did he secretly giggle when he heard Wallace speak Malay with a strong British accent? Did he gossip about his boss with other locals? Why was Wallace enthralled to discover a new beetle or ant? Did Ali see his time with Wallace as a chance to better himself, a grand adventure? Or was his work with Wallace simply a job?”
― Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, "Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird": Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace's Faithful Companion

“We know quite a bit about Alfred Russel Wallace, one of the great figures of modern science. But we know relatively little about Ali, Wallace’s faithful companion who supported him during much of his eight-year sojourn in the Malay Archipelago in the mid-19th century.”
― Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, "Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird": Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace's Faithful Companion

“Just as Wallace learned and evolved, Ali was on his own journey of discovery. Starting out as a 15-year-old cook, Ali learned to collect and mount specimens. He took on responsibility for organizing travel. He nursed Wallace during many bouts of fever and injury.”
― Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, "Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird": Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace's Faithful Companion

“There is a deep interconnectedness of all life on earth, from the tiniest organisms, to the largest ecosystems, and absolutely between each person.”
― Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

“Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“I believe until fairly recently our destructions of nature were more or less unwitting -- the by-products, so to speak, of our ignorance or weakness or depravity. It is our present principled and elaborately rationalized rape and plunder of the natural world that is a new thing under the sun.”
― Wendell Berry

“For the human experience, life in the natural world seems to require the application of meaning, in order to evoke purpose.”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence

“All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth. When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose. This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind's attic, but it is accessible.”
― John Trudell

“There is no subject more captivating, more worthy of study, than nature. To understand this great mechanism, to discover the forces which are active, and the laws which govern them, is the highest aim of the intellect of man.”
― Nikola Tesla

“Embracing permaculture economics means recognizing the intrinsic value of the natural world.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“I think one of the biggest plagues of modern life is sterility. People are becoming sick, because they're too sterile. They live in too sterile a world. They don't touch living organisms, so they have no immunity to nature. And you can't live separate from nature.”
― Geoff Lawton

“Nature is not intentionally theatrical. The drama we sometimes see in landscapes is a projection of something in us, the trace of a nagging fear that we do not belong in nature, that we are no match for the forces that brought us into being”
― Christopher Camuto, Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island

“Beautiful as they are, these tidal places are often moody and strange. Sometimes you can feel the bittersweet tang of your mortality rubbing up against a beachhead of infinity”
― Christopher Camuto, Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island

“No! our Science is a drop, our ignorance a sea. Whatever else be certain, this is at least is certain: that the world of our present natural knowledge is enveloped in a larger world of some sort of whose residual properties we at present can frame no positive idea.”
― William James

“Nature is an old school, frequented by hippies on weekends.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“They talk about plants but she talks to plants. She believes plants can listen, talk, dance, and do whatever they want.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“The more we observe nature, the more there is the possibility of seeing things we've never seen before.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“Over half the Earth's people live in cities, and they hardly ever see, feel or hear the natural world. Therefore our first duty should be to convince them that the real world is the living Earth and that they and their city lives are part of it and wholly dependent on it for their existence.”
― James Lovelock, We Belong to Gaia

“Now that I was living closer to
nature, I realized that this was the real world, very
different from the man-made world of automobiles,
computers and skyscrapers. Man was a god of sorts
in his own sphere, but on a lovely mountainside he
is no more important than an ant—and not half as
industrious!”
― Ruskin Bond, The Beauty of All My Days: A Memoir [Hardcover] RUSKIN BOND

“Mother nature is the greatest painter.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“We’ve made a mess of the world, but all is not yet lost. One of the most important things is to connect people, especially children, to nature.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“The destruction of the natural world is not the result of global capitalism, industrialisation, 'Western civilisation' or any flaw in human institutions. It is a consequence of the evolutionary success of an exceptionally rapacious primate. Throughout all of history and prehistory, human advance has coincided with ecological devastation.”
― John Gray, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

“I don’t care who ascends and who descends in life anymore. I’ve had enough of this drama. I am going for a forest walk. I am entering the deep woods.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“You can’t escape the cultural associations embodied by plants. You can’t have one without the other.”
― Ayurella Horn-Muller, Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South