Forest Quotes

“Often when I imagine you,
your wholeness cascades into many shapes.
You run like a herd of luminous deer,
and I am dark;
I am forest.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

“They were part of a forest, an ecosystem that is perfect because of its wide variety of species, dominant because nothing is not allowed to be there. In the forest, everything that is inclined to thrive really does, and has a job, and some jobs are to grow things up and some jobs are to take things apart and everything is accepted because there is no notion—among bacteria and moss and busy mice—there is no notion of who deserves to do something or be in a place. There are only lives to be lived, and they are everywhere.”
― Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

“The term “panic” derives from Pan, the god of the woods. People lost deep in the forest report a terror, as though trees might conspire against them. Nature has no special regard for humanity. Panic is our brain's way of reminding us we should be humble.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“It was as if the sun had been stolen. Only thin ribbons of light seeped down through the green and milky air, air syrupy with the scent of pine, huckleberry, and juniper. From the rolling, emerald-carpeted earth, fingers of lacy ferns curled up, above which the massive fir and pine trees stood, pillar-like, to support an invisible sky. Hovering over everything was a silence as deep as the trees were tall.”
― Avi, Poppy

“if love was a tree
I'd plant you a forest”
― Dahi Tamara Koch, Within the event horizon: poetry & prose

“We were in the woods, and not a parent or a friend on earth knew where. At this moment, we were untraceable, this notion an odd pleasure. A patch of fallen leaves glowed in a pool of golden sun, and the dim forest air smelled sweet, of young lilac, invisible sage.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“Whatever the particularities of their history, these fallen trees have now started the next part of their journey through the ecology of this old-growth forest. Fungi, salamanders, and thousands of species of invertebrates will thrive in and under the rotting trunks. At least half a tree's contribution to the fabric of life comes after its death, so one measure of a vitality of a forest ecosystem is the density of tree carcasses. You're in a great forest if you cannot pick out a straight-line path through fallen limbs and trunks. A bare forest floor is a sign of ill health.”
― David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature

“They weave between the trees and bracken, leaves and sticks cracking beneath their feet, grey flints and white chalk jutting like shards of bone glinting through the soil. Out of the direct sunlight, the air is soft and green, as if they walk through cool water. The further they go, the thicker the insidious ivy scaling the beech tree trunks and the denser the canopy.”
― Hannah Richell, The Peacock Summer

“It is quiet in the clearing, though gradually Lillian's ears attune to the soft rustling of insects and birds moving through the undergrowth, the faraway tapping of a woodpecker high in a tree. Down on the ground, a bronze-colored beetle tries to scale the side of her shoe. It slips on the smooth leather and tumbles back into the dry leaves, waggling its legs in the air.
She shifts slightly on the tree trunk then watches as Jack pulls a strand of grass from a clump growing nearby and sucks on one end, looking about at the canopy overhead. "Wonderful light," he murmurs. "I wish I hadn't left my sketchbook at the house."
She knows she must say something. But the moment stretches and she can't find the words so instead she looks about, trying to see the clearing as he might, trying to view the world through an artist's eyes. What details would he pull from this scene, what elements would he commit to memory to reproduce on paper?
A cathedral, he'd said; and she supposes there is something rather celestial and awe-inspiring about the tall, arched trees and the light streaming in golden shafts through the soft green branches, filtered as though through stained glass.”
― Hannah Richell, The Peacock Summer

“They were at the edge of the Quiescent Jungle, which was the friendliest forest in Never Land. The leaves of the trees spanned every shade of golden green, and the creatures who lived there were all harmless and mostly furry. The air smelled like ripening blackberries- although it was not quite the right season- and a whisper of cool moistness hinted at a delightfully icy stream somewhere nearby.
Only a fool would want to leave. Only a genius would choose to nap there.”
― Liz Braswell, Straight On Till Morning

“The town of North Falls consisted of twenty-eight square miles positioned on a high plateau in the southern region of the Green Mountain range. It had the highest altitude of any village in the state, which meant the snow came early and it came often. It also meant that the first thing anybody noticed about the town was the church steeple. The rotting whitewashed wood and the slatted oval window and the copper spire all connected to the simple wood framing. It was the highest point in the state, and people liked to say that it was closer to God than anywhere else in Vermont. Not that it did the town much good.”
― Ian Pisarcik, Before Familiar Woods

“Now to think that this tree was a mere seed seed someday seems unthinkable. A seed that could be carried away by yhe air and thrown anywhere.A seed that had no choice of its own to decide where it would grow had the inherent potential that could grow a forest!”
― Sanchita Pandey, Lessons from My Garden

“To learn something from you, the forest silently observes you and quietly listens to you! If you want to learn something from the forest, do the same thing!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Snow-laced pines loomed tall and motionless as sentinels around her. Something moved among them, half-smothered in the dark. Dianna glimpsed slivers of its lupine form. A chill slithered through her as she rose to her feet.”
― Marissa Byfield, The Soft Fall

“She’s doing it for your protection, you know that. There’s not been anyone like you in millenniums.”
― Sela Ordaz, The Thousand Routes Tree

“The rains began. Hard, constant, they battered the fields, turned the roads to mud, crushed the gold leaves into the ground and turned them black. In the wood, the sodden trees and brambles bowed beneath the torrents.”
― Patricia A. McKillip, Winter Rose

“Lancelot was following, slowly, on the dark and narrow path. All about him and from high above, the mighty trees of Pendaran Wood were letting fall their green leaves, gently, on a night in the midst of summer, to honour the passage of the man.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, The Fionavar Tapestry

“As someone who’s lived most of her life in a small town surrounded by woods, I’ve never appreciated how so many horror enthusiasts flock to the forest for inspiration.”
― Jacqueline E. Smith, Trashy Suspense Novel

“„To, co do tej pory brałam za szum wiatru w liściach, okazało się być setkami tysięcy głosów, splatających się szeptów. Usiłowałam wyłowić z nich jakieś pojedyncze słowa, ale ich sens mi umykał. Melodia lasu wypełniła mnie, dając poczucie bezpieczeństwa i pewności, że wszytsko będzie dobrze. Dźwięki wibrujące wokół mnie dodawały mi odwagi i siły (…) Każde słowo brzmiało, jak pieśń na cześć życia”
― Anna Jurewicz, Sub Rosa

“Die Welt ist im Umbruch. Jedenfalls kann sie nach diesem Unglück nicht mehr die gleiche sein.”
― Jona Dreyer, Der Veilchengraf

“There is something in the trees awaiting discovery.”
― Steven Magee

“Der Weglose Wald verdiente seinen Namen. Er schien kein Anfang und kein Ende zu haben, wie ein grünes Meer, in dem man ebenso leicht ertrinken konnte wie in den Wellen seines salzig nassen Namensvettern.”
― Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

“For there is one thing a vagrant knows–never call nowhere Nowhere, and never call Anywhere yours, for Anywhere is always someone else’s.”
― Marissa Byfield, The Soft Fall

“You are aware that is late, the sun set half a spin ago.” She did know, it was one of the reasons why she had left at that time, when they changed guards, when the spin was over then she could more easily slip away.”
― Sela Ordaz, The Thousand Routes Tree

“Perchance, one day you wake in a tub
of cold blood come warm. Then, will you let
this whole forest of hurt love you?”
― stephanie roberts, rushes from the river disappointment (Volume 53)

“The winding turns around capes, the unclouded sky, the flower mottled hills existed only as an aspect of waiting. Towns, civilization, meant the possibility of stopping for a meal, for the night even. Deep forest preserves through which a dirt road cut, gorgeous vistas that made one in awe of nature, only meant we were not yet near our destination.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“Primeval forest,' he said. 'Original forest.'

'Wouldn't you like to build a house here and live alone with your wife?'

'Yes,' he said. 'Have a family and write something-poems and stories.'

'Maybe have four children.'

'It is not permitted,' he said. Then he smiled. 'But this is so far they wouldn't know. It wouldn't matter. Yes, I would like that.”
― Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster

“We develop our architecture through metaphor. In the distant past we looked to those places we recognised and experienced in nature for ideas – the shelter of a cave, the shade of a tree, the original refuge of the womb, our own proud vertical stance and point of view, the communal circle we make with our friends in a forest clearing… – and sought to emulate them in our architecture.”
― Simon Unwin, Metaphor: an exploration of the metaphorical dimensions and potential of architecture

“Increased lightning is causing increased forest fires.”
― Steven Magee

“Come to California...and burn!”
― Steven Magee