The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Nature
The motive of science was the extension of man, on all sides, into Nature, till his hands should touch the stars.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Beauty · 1841

Quotes

“It was for beauty that the world was made.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Beauty, 1841 · Primary source

“The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

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.

William Blake · Auguries of Innocence, 1803 · Primary source

“Go out into the sunlight and be happy with what you see.”

Winston Churchill · Painting as a Pastime, 1948 · Primary source

“Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behaviour and practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smouldering straw then breathing in the smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?”

Ian Fleming · Goldfinger, 1959 · Primary source

“Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Nature, 1836 · Primary source

“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Nature, 1836 · Primary source

“Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Self-Reliance, 1841 · Primary source

“The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · No reliable source

“That Beauty is the normal state, is shown by the perpetual effort of Nature to attain it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Beauty, 1841 · Primary source

“Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occured in experience.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.”

Jack London · The Call of the Wild, 1903 · Primary source

Works

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1836
Nature

An exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature, arguing that direct experience of the natural world can reveal spiritual and intellectual truths.

Read summary·Explore 3 quotes
Henry David Thoreau · 1849
Walden

An account of simple living at Walden Pond that examines self-reliance, nature, material needs, society, work, and deliberate living.

Read summary·Explore 26 quotes
Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1841
Beauty

An exploration of beauty in nature, people and art, considering how form, proportion, character and perception shape aesthetic experience.

Read summary·Explore 11 quotes

Related Tags

Self-reliance 49 Simplicity 35 Transcendentalism 32 Purpose 31 Experience 30 Independence 29 Perception 20 Knowledge 18 Observation 17 Adaptation 17 Imagination 16 Beauty 14 Attention 11 Individualism 10 Contentment 7 Intuition 7 Health 6 Renewal 6 Possibility 6 Aesthetics 6 Painting 5 Personal agency 5 Exploration 5 Wilderness 5 Habit 4 Innocence 4 Necessity 4 Causation 4 Scientific discovery 4 Intellectual humility 4 Simple living 4 Human behaviour 3 Inner life 3 Science 3 Harmony 3 Deliberate living 3 Infinity 3 Self-transcendence 2 Order 2 Walden Pond 2 Natural order 2 Spirituality 2 Sunlight 1 Smoking 1 Spiritual unity 1 Divine presence 1 Circles 1 Patterns 1 Human capability 1 Self-reflection 1 Landscape 1 Sensory experience 1 Presence 1 Embodiment 1 Constraint 1 Unknown phenomena 1 Human imagination 1 Eternity 1 Spring 1 Seasonal change 1