Echoes

Human subtlety...will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

It is just as foolish to complain that people are selfish and treacherous as it is to complain that the magnetic field does not increase unless the electric field has a curl. Both are laws of nature.

Nature, considered rationally, that is to say, submitted to the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena; a harmony, blending together all created things, however dissimilar in form and attributes; one great whole animated by the breath of life.

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

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

It is far from easy to determine whether Nature has proved to man a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.

Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.

The earth teaches us more about ourselves than all the books in the world, because it is resistant to us.

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.

I found that a strict and regular life is the true way to conquer nature, and that the proverb which says that nature is so powerful is in part false.

There is a love of wild Nature in everybody, an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.

Nature everywhere speaks to man in a voice familiar to his soul.

Nature does not do anything in vain.

Everything changes; nothing perishes.

The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural fact as a picture.

Human nature being what it is, events which happened in the past will at some time or other and in much the same ways be repeated in the future.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

All Nature's wildness tells the same story: the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort, each and all, are the orderly, beauty-making love-beats of Nature's heart.

All men by nature desire to know.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

Nature of the world was not created for us by divine will: such great fault is inherent in it.

I wiped away the weeds and foam, And fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things Had left their beauty on the shore With the sun, and the sand, and the wild uproar.