“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Attributed to Martin Luther
HopeTrees
Nature Quotes
135 FAMOUS QUOTES · NATURE
Nature Quotes
Read 200 of the best nature quotes from Lao Tzu, the Atharva Veda, Rabindranath Tagore, Wordsworth, Thoreau and John Muir, on trees, mountains, the sea, seasons and caring for our planet.
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.”
Hermann Hesse
TreesWisdom
“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”
Joyce Kilmer
TreesPoetry
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
Kahlil Gibran
TreesSky
“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”
John Muir
ForestsAdventure
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.”
William Blake
PerspectiveTrees
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Warren Buffett
PatienceLegacy
“The trees, like the longings of the earth, stand a-tiptoe to peep at the heaven.”
Rabindranath Tagore
TreesLonging
“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”
The Bible (Psalm 1:3)
GrowthFaith
“One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.”
Chinese Proverb
GenerationsTrees
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
ForestsSoil
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep.”
Robert Frost
ForestsDuty
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Edmund Hillary
MountainsSelf Mastery
“Because it's there.”
George Mallory (asked why he wanted to climb Everest)
AdventureShort Quotes
“In the north there is a mountain, Himalaya by name, the lord of mountains, with divinity for its soul.”
Kalidasa (Kumarasambhavam)
HimalayasDivinity
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
The Bible (Psalm 121:1)
HillsFaith
“Mountains are the cathedrals where I practise my religion.”
Anatoli Boukreev
MountainsSpirituality
“It has been a long road. From a mountain coolie, a bearer of loads, to a wearer of a coat with rows of medals.”
Attributed to Tenzing Norgay
JourneyEverest
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
Isak Dinesen
SeaHealing
“If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”
Rachel Carson
SeaPoetry
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”
John F. Kennedy
OceanOrigins
“Meditation and water are wedded for ever.”
Herman Melville (Moby-Dick)
WaterMeditation
“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll!”
Lord Byron
OceanPoetry
“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”
Kate Chopin (The Awakening)
SeaSoul
“The sea is everything.”
Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
SeaShort Quotes
Related Topics
About Nature Quotes
Nature is our first home and our oldest teacher. Forests, rivers, mountains, oceans and even a single flower can calm the mind, inspire wonder and remind us how small and how connected we are. From the Vedic hymns that call the earth our mother to modern writers urging us to protect the planet, people have always found wisdom in the natural world.
This collection brings together 200 of the best nature quotes, from ancient thinkers like Lao Tzu, Aristotle and the Atharva Veda to poets such as Rabindranath Tagore, William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson, and naturalists like Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. You'll find quotes about trees, mountains, the sea, flowers, the seasons and caring for the earth. For more, explore our [Environmental Quotes](/topics/environmental-quotes) and [Gardening Quotes](/topics/gardening-quotes).
## Ancient Wisdom on Nature
1. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Author: Lao Tzu Tags: Patience, Calm
2. In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous. Author: Aristotle Tags: Wonder, Beauty
3. Nature loves to hide. Author: Heraclitus Tags: Mystery, Short Quotes
4. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are. Author: Marcus Aurelius Tags: Change, Universe
5. All art is but imitation of nature. Author: Seneca Tags: Art, Inspiration
6. If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Author: Cicero Tags: Gardens, Contentment
7. Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. Author: Attributed to Confucius Tags: Beauty, Perspective
8. Earth is my mother, and I am her child. Author: The Atharva Veda (Bhumi Sukta) Tags: Mother Earth, Indian Wisdom
9. Whatever I dig from you, O Earth, may that have quick regrowth; may I not hit your vitals or your heart. Author: The Atharva Veda (Bhumi Sukta) Tags: Respect, Conservation
10. All this, whatever moves in this moving world, is pervaded by the Lord. Author: The Isha Upanishad Tags: Divine Nature, Spirituality
11. I am the taste in water, the light of the sun and the moon. Author: The Bhagavad Gita Tags: Divine Nature, Faith
12. If one offers Me with love a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I accept it. Author: The Bhagavad Gita Tags: Devotion, Simplicity
13. Clear water, open land, hills and cool, shady forests make up a fortress. Author: Thiruvalluvar Tags: Protection, Forests
14. Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. Author: Rabindranath Tagore Tags: Trees, Poetry
15. Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves. Author: Rabindranath Tagore Tags: Seasons, Life
16. The old pond; a frog jumps in, the sound of water. Author: Matsuo Basho Tags: Haiku, Stillness
17. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. Author: Proverb (origin uncertain) Tags: Trees, Action
18. A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Author: Greek Proverb Tags: Trees, Legacy
19. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Author: Often called a Native American proverb (origin uncertain) Tags: Conservation, Future Generations
20. When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught and the last river is poisoned, we will realise that we cannot eat money. Author: Often called a Cree prophecy (origin uncertain) Tags: Conservation, Warning
## Bible Verses About Nature
21. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Author: The Bible (Genesis 1:31) Tags: Creation, Goodness
22. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Author: The Bible (Psalm 19:1) Tags: Sky, Creation
23. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Author: The Bible (Psalm 24:1) Tags: Earth, Faith
24. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. Author: The Bible (Job 12:7-8) Tags: Animals, Learning
25. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. Author: The Bible (Matthew 6:28) Tags: Flowers, Trust
26. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. Author: The Bible (Song of Solomon 2:12) Tags: Spring, Birds
27. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Author: The Bible (Isaiah 40:8) Tags: Impermanence, Faith
## Classic Writers and Poets on Nature
28. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Author: William Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida) Tags: Unity, Humanity
29. And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing. Author: William Shakespeare (As You Like It) Tags: Learning, Forests
30. Nature never breaks her own laws. Author: Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci Tags: Natural Laws, Order
31. The Sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. Author: Galileo Galilei Tags: Sun, Wonder
32. Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Author: Francis Bacon Tags: Respect, Science
33. To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour. Author: William Blake Tags: Wonder, Poetry
34. Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher. Author: William Wordsworth Tags: Learning, Light
35. Nature never did betray the heart that loved her. Author: William Wordsworth Tags: Love, Trust
36. The poetry of earth is never dead. Author: John Keats Tags: Poetry, Earth
37. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore. Author: Lord Byron Tags: Forests, Sea
38. Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Tags: Patience, Wisdom
39. The earth laughs in flowers. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Tags: Flowers, Joy
40. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Tags: Forests, Peace
41. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. Author: Henry David Thoreau Tags: Simple Living, Forests
42. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Author: Henry David Thoreau Tags: Earth, Wonder
43. In wildness is the preservation of the world. Author: Henry David Thoreau Tags: Wilderness, Conservation
44. In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. Author: John Muir Tags: Walking, Gifts
45. The mountains are calling and I must go. Author: John Muir Tags: Mountains, Adventure
46. Keep close to Nature's heart, and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. Author: John Muir Tags: Renewal, Mountains
47. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. Author: Walt Whitman Tags: Wonder, Poetry
48. To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee. Author: Emily Dickinson Tags: Small Things, Poetry
49. The world is charged with the grandeur of God. Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins Tags: Grandeur, Faith
50. If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Author: Vincent van Gogh Tags: Beauty, Love
## Naturalists and Scientists on Nature
51. There is grandeur in this view of life; from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. Author: Charles Darwin Tags: Evolution, Wonder
52. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. Author: Rachel Carson Tags: Beauty, Strength
53. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction. Author: Rachel Carson Tags: Wonder, Conservation
54. Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Author: Attributed to Albert Einstein Tags: Understanding, Observation
55. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Author: Albert Einstein Tags: Compassion, Living Creatures
56. Nature is pleased with simplicity. Author: Isaac Newton Tags: Simplicity, Science
57. Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. Author: Richard Feynman Tags: Patterns, Science
58. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. Author: Carl Sagan Tags: Cosmos, Wonder
59. No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced. Author: David Attenborough Tags: Conservation, Experience
60. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Author: Jane Goodall Tags: Action, Responsibility
61. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Author: Aldo Leopold Tags: Land, Respect
62. Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking. Author: Wangari Maathai Tags: Trees, Action
63. Ecology is permanent economy. Author: Sunderlal Bahuguna Tags: Ecology, Chipko Movement
64. The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed. Author: Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi Tags: Greed, Conservation
65. What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. Author: Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi Tags: Forests, Humanity
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Nature quotes.
What is the most famous quote about nature?
Lao Tzu's "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished" is one of the best known. John Muir's "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks" is another favourite.
What does Indian tradition say about nature?
The Atharva Veda's Bhumi Sukta says, "Earth is my mother, and I am her child," and prays that whatever we take from the earth may grow back quickly. The Thirukkural says that without water, the world cannot exist.
What did Rabindranath Tagore say about trees?
Tagore wrote that "Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven," and compared trees to the earth's longings, standing on tiptoe to peep at the sky.
What is a good quote about protecting the environment?
Robert Swan said, "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it." Jacques Cousteau added, "People protect what they love."
Is "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors" a Native American proverb?
It's often called one, but its true origin is uncertain. We've labelled it that way to be accurate.
What is a good short nature quote?
Try "The earth laughs in flowers," "Nature does nothing in vain," "We need the tonic of wildness" or "Nature is the Art of God."