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If one way be better
than
another, that you may
be sure is nature's way.
Aristotle |
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nature - nature
3 - nature 4 |
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. . .this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 't is her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
William Wordsworth
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Nature
is another
important aspect of
nourishing the soul.
After a hike
in the
mountains where we
live, for
instance, I
feel a remarkable sense
of gratitude and awe.
My mind quiets down
and allows me to see
more
clearly the beauty
of creation. And through
that
gratitude,
the
beauty of the universe
is reflected back
to
the creator.
Joan Borysenko
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I find nature so
nourishing. I love to hike, especially in the
mountains.
When I'm walking in nature, I feel in
awe of the wonder of creation.
Nature is full of
surprises, always changing, and we must change with it.
In nature, the soul is renewed and called to open
and grow.
In the wilderness, you're up against
whatever nature brings you--
the dangers as well as the
beauty.
Linda Leonard |
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All of our ideas come from the
natural world:
trees equal umbrellas.
Wallace Stevens |
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Willa Cather
I like trees because
they seem more resigned to the way they have to live
than
other things do. |
Life
is the gift of nature;
beautiful living is
the gift of wisdom.
Celtic saying |
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Adopt
the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We cannot
fail in following nature.
Montaigne |
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We all look at nature
too much,
and live with her too little.
Oscar Wilde |
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One touch of nature makes the
whole world kin.
William Shakespeare |
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You
will find more in woods than in books.
Trees and stones
will teach you that which
you can never learn from the
masters.
St. Bernard |
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There is a certain consideration, and a
general duty of humanity,
that binds us not only to the
animals, which have life and feeling,
but even to the
trees and plants. We owe justice to people,
and kindness and
benevolence to all other creatures
who may be susceptible
of it. There is some intercourse
between them and us, and
some mutual obligation.
Michel de Montaigne |
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The
more I see of life the more I perceive that only
through
solitary communion with nature can one gain
an idea of
its richness and meaning.
Cyril Connolly |
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The love of nature is the only
love
that does not deceive human hopes.
Honore de Balzac |
Art is
embedded in nature and
they who can extract it, have it.
Albrecht Duerer |
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The unhappiness of
people is due
to their ignorance of nature.
Baron Paul D'Holbach |
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Nature,
to be commanded, must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon |
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A soul who is not close to nature is
far away
from what is called spirituality. In order to be
spiritual
one must communicate, and especially one must
communicate with nature; one must feel nature.
Hazrat Inayat Khan |
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I remembered one morning when I
discovered a cocoon in the bark
of a tree, just as the
butterfly was making a hole in its case
and preparing to
come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing
and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to
warm it. I warmed it
as quickly as I could and the
miracle began to happen before my eyes,
faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling
out
and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its
wings
were folded back and crumpled; the wretched
butterfly tried
with its whole trembling body to unfold
them. Bending over it,
I tried to help it with my breath. In vain. It needed to be hatched out patiently
and the
unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the
sun.
Now it was too late. My breath had forced the
butterfly to appear,
all crumpled, before its time. It
struggled desperately and,
a few seconds later, died in
the palm of my hand.
That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight
I
have on my conscience. For I realize today that it is a
mortal sin
to violate the great laws of nature. We should
not hurry,
we should not be impatient, but we should
confidently
obey the eternal rhythm.
Nikos Kazantzakis
from Zorba the Greek |
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The clearest way into
the universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir |
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If I
were to name the three most precious resources of life,
I should say
books, friends, and nature;
and the greatest of these, at least the
most constant
and always at hand, is nature.
John
Burroughs |
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Out
in the Fields with God
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The little cares
which fretted me
I lost them yesterday,
Among the fields, above the sea,
Among the winds at play,
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
The foolish fear of what might happen,
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay,
Among the husking of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod
Where ill thoughts die and good are born--
Out in the fields with God |
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When despair for the world
grows in me and I wake in the night
at the least sound in fear of what
my life and my children's lives
may be, I go and lie down where the
wood drake rests in its beauty
on the water, and the great heron
feeds. I come into the peace
of wild things who do not tax their
lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of
still water. And I feel above me
day-blind stars waiting for
their light. For a time I rest
in the grace of the world, and am
free.
Wendell
Berry
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To cultivate a garden is.
. . to go hand in hand with Nature
in some of her most beautiful processes, to
learn something
of her choicest secrets, and to have a more intelligent
interest
awakened in the beautiful order of her works elsewhere.
Christian Bovee
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Flowers
always make people better, happier and more helpful;
they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.
Luther
Burbank
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I don't ask for the
meaning of the song of a bird
or the rising of the sun on a misty morning.
There they are, and they are beautiful.
Pete Hamill
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Let us a little permit nature to take her own way;
she better understands her own affairs than we.
Montaigne
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There is nothing like walking to
get the feel of a country.
A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it
must be taken
at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast.
Paul Scott Mowrer
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When one
tugs at a single thing in nature,
one finds it attached to the rest of the
world.
John Muir
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Background for Humans
Wilferd A. Peterson
In diversity, complexity, surprise, wrath,
serenity, destructiveness, magnificence, Nature's wild adventurous
spirit is unexcelled.
From dainty rose to giant cactus, from ant to
elephant, from fish to human, Nature is infinite in her scope.
Nature is sculptor, inventor, engineer, artist,
architect, musician, friend and foe.
As sculptor Nature works on cliffs and canyon
walls carving figures and towers, turrets and castles. Rock
erosion is her chisel; rushing, pounding waters are her hammers.
As inventor Nature designs creatures that
crawl, climb, leap, fly, jump, run, swim. They come in endless
shapes, sizes, coloring, with fins, fangs, feathers, claws, shells,
feelers, stingers.
As engineer Nature creates a limitless universe
with watch-like precision. She controls hundreds of billions of
stars and their spinning planets. Time and tide, night and day,
the flow of magnetic currents, light and air are under her command.
As artist Nature splashes color across the vast
canvas of the sky with the radiance and splendor of sunrise and
sunset. She arches rainbows against the passing storm, creates
flowers and foliage, sets autumn woods on fire with the beauty of
turning leaves and touches mountaintops with snow crystals.
As architect Nature builds pillars of clouds,
rugged mountain ranges, deep canyons, quiet valleys and towering
skyscraper trees.
As musician Nature is maestro to ten thousand
bird songs, chirping crickets, howl and roar of wild beasts, buzz of
insects, trumpeting of elephants, organ music of the surf--the great
symphony of forest and jungle.
As friend, Nature works as a creative partner
with us, providing the gifts of soil, seed, sun, rain, minerals,
chemicals--the forces, elements and ingredients for the preservation,
perpetuation and evolution of life.
As foe, Nature sends floods, tornadoes,
hurricanes, blizzards, sandstorms, earthquakes, relentless, devastating
forces, to challenge and test our will to conquer and survive.
Nature creates people's homes on earth.
It is a home of contrasts; of good and evil, beauty and ugliness,
tranquility and terror. The whole natural world is the background
against which people play their heroic part in the eternal adventure of
their becoming. |
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I honor the wisdom of life.
I learn from life in all its forms.
The tree teaches me. The sparrow and the wren sing my song.
I am open to the lessons Life brings me from the earth.
I learn from the wind, from the sun, from the small flowers,
and from the stars. I walk without arrogance. I learn from all
I encounter. I open my mind and heart to the guidance and love
that come to me from the natural world.
Julia Cameron
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When I'm out in
nature, I feel a stronger sense of gratitude
and awe, and I see more clearly just how beautiful this
world is. I need that feeling every once in a while if I'm to
keep a clear perspective in my daily life on just what is truly
important and just what isn't. We nourish our souls when
we get in touch with nature, and our souls are the part
of ourselves that we so often neglect.
tom walsh
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