Friday, August 29, 2008

Nature Quotes #5


For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

—Edward Abbey


Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains. —Diane Ackerman


It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.

—Ansel Adams


Worlds can be found by a child and an adult bending down and looking together under the grass stems or at the skittering crabs in a tidal pool. —Mary Catherine Bateson


Rain! Whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains. —Henry Ward Beecher


To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival. —Wendell Berry


A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart. —Hal Borland


What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn't have any doubt - it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else. —Hal Boyle


To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring—these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

—John Burroughs


Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. —Albert Camus


Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries. —Jimmy Carter


Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.

—Anthony J. D'Angelo


Use what talent you possess - the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. —Henry Van Dyke


Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. —Albert Einstein


The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands. —Henry Ellis


In your standard-issue family, of which few remain, but on which our expectations are still based, there are parents and there are children. The way you know which are which, aside from certain size and age differences and despite any behavior similarities, is that the parents are the bossy ones. —Delia Ephron


In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.

—John Fowles


The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. —John Muir


A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. —Carl Reiner


Grass grows by inches but it's killed by feet. —George Thomas


It's hard for the modern generation to understand Thoreau, who lived beside a pond but didn't own water skis or a snorkel. —Bill Vaughan


The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. —Tennessee Williams


I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape—the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

—Andrew Wyeth


There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.

—R. Buckminster Fuller


I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. —Hamlin Garland


Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me—I am happy. —Hamlin Garland


The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.

—Jean Giraudoux


When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word —religion. Then I go out and paint the stars. —Vincent Van Gogh A mistake is simply another way of doing things.

—Katharine Graham


I don't mind if my skull ends up on a shelf as long as it's got my name on it. —Debbie Harry


Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. —Kin Hubbard


Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers. —Robert Green Ingersoll


It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. —P. D. James


I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future. —John F. Kennedy


Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. —Virgil A. Kraft


In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia. —Charles Lindbergh


I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. —Claude Monet


How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! —John Muir


It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. —Robert Louis Stevenson

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Walking Qoutes #4


People say that losing weight is no walk in the park. When I hear that I think, yeah, that’s the problem. —Chris Adams

How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk.
—Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, “The Walk,” 25 October 1967

Make your feet your friend. —J.M. Barrie

He who limps is still walking. —Stanislaw J. Lec

There is this to be said for walking: It’s the one mode of human locomotion by which a man proceeds on his own two feet, upright, erect, as a man should be, not squatting on his rear haunches like a frog. —Edward Abbey

Walking isn’t a lost art—one must, by some means, get to the garage. —Evan Esar

Now shall I walk or shall I ride? “Ride,” Pleasure said: “Walk,” Joy replied. —W.H. Davies

[We] live with our heels as well as head and most of our pleasure comes in that way. —John Muir

Your body is built for walking. —Gary Yanker

In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are walking to seek, ye shall find. —Sommeil Liberosensa

The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk. —Jacqueline Schiff

We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down. —Robert Sweetgall

Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise. —Carrie Latet

The body’s habituation to walking as normal stems from the good old days. It was the bourgeois form of locomotion: physical demythologization, free of the spell of hieratic pacing, roofless wandering, breathless flight. Human dignity insisted on the right to walk, a rhythm not extorted from the body by command or terror. The walk, the stroll, were private ways of passing time, the heritage of the feudal promenade in the nineteenth century.
—Theodor W. Adorno

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. —Henry David Thoreau

A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk. —O.A. Battista

If you pick ‘em up, O Lord, I’ll put ‘em down. —Author Unknown, “Prayer of the Tired Walker”
Walking is good for solving problems—it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists. —Pepper Giardino

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, The House of Europe

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. —Raymond Inmon

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. —Paul Dudley White

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. —Henry David Thoreau

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. —Steven Wright

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. —G.M. Trevelyan

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. —Aldous Huxley

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. —Wallace Stevens

After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value. —George Macauley Trevelyan

I dream of hiking into my old age. —Marlyn Doan

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning. —Cyril Connolly

Solvitur ambulando, St. Jerome was fond of saying. To solve a problem, walk around. —Gregory McNamee

A pedestrian is someone who thought there were a couple of gallons left in the tank. —Author Unknown

Thoughts come clearly while one walks. —Thomas Mann

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. —John Muir

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. —Soren Kierkegaard

Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird. —Jules Renard

You need special shoes for hiking—and a bit of a special soul as well. —Emme Woodhull-Bäche

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. —John Burroughs

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” 1841

Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas. —J.K. Rowling

I represent what is left of a vanishing race, and that is the pedestrian.... That I am still able to be here, I owe to a keen eye and a nimble pair of legs. But I know they’ll get me someday. —Will Rogers

After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile. —English Proverb

If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish. —Charles Dickens

Walking takes longer... than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed.
—Edward Abbey, “Walking”

As a nation we are dedicated to keeping physically fit—and parking as close to the stadium as possible. —Bill Vaughan

I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least— and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. —Henry David Thoreau

What really helps motivate me to walk are my dogs, who are my best pals. They keep you honest about walking because when it’s time to go, you can’t disappoint those little faces. —Wendie Malick

Walking gets the feet moving, the blood moving, the mind moving. And movement is life. —Carrie Latet

If you want to forget all your other troubles, wear too tight shoes. —The Houghton Line

The Americans never walk. In winter too cold and in summer too hot. —J.B. Yeats

I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o’clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for. —Henry David Thoreau

The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk. —Mark Twain

[Hiking] is the best workout!... You can hike for three hours and not even realize you’re working out. And, hiking alone lets me have some time to myself. —Jamie Luner

Don’t let people drive you crazy when you know it’s within walking distance. —Author Unknown

The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand. —Frederick L. Knowles

Monday, August 25, 2008

Nature Quotes #3


Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark.
—Anonymous

All the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish. —Harold F. Blaisdell
It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming. —John Steinbeck

We ask a simple question
And that is all we wish:
Are fishermen all liars?
Or do only liars fish?
—William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years.
—Charles Haas

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Nature Quotes #2

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. —Albert Einstein

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. —Nelson Mandela

Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark. —Anonymous

The shell must break before the bird can fly. —Tennyson

It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming. —John Steinbeck

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years. —Charles Haas


They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life. — Jane Austin

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity ... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
— William Blake

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. — Jacob Brownowski

Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives. —Mary Ann Brussat

Give me a spark of Nature’s fire. That’s all the learning I desire. — Robert Burns

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. — Rachel Carson


The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world — the very nature of its life.
— Rachel Carson 1962

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
— George Washington Carver

Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life.
— George Washington Carver

The boughs of no two trees never have the same arrangement. Nature always produces individuals; she never produces classes. — Lydia Maria Child

Everything in life is speaking in spite of it’s apparent silence. —Hazrat Inayat Khan

To plant a pine one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel.
—A Sand County Almanac

Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
—A Sand County Almanac

’Tis always morning somewhere, and aboveThe awakening continents, from shore to shore,Somewhere the birds are singing evermore. —Longfellow

In Montana, a policeman will pull you over because he’s lonely. — Rich Hall

It’s only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realize how often they burst into flames. —Harry Hill

The frontier, so long an important influence on the temper of the American, no longer exists. But the continent can still boast a spaciousness, a grandeur, a richness and a variety. These are things which other nations can never recover. Should we lose them, we could not recover them either. The generation now living may very well be that which will make the irrevocable decision whether or not America will continue to be for centuries to come the one great nation which had the foresight to preserve an important part of its heritage.If we do not preserve it, then we shall have diminished by just that much the unique privilege of being an American.
—From Grand Canyon:
Today and All Its Yesterdays,
by Joseph Wood Krutch

There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay some forms of life arise. —Charles Mackay

Nature hath appointed twilight as a bridge to pass us out of day into night. —Thomas Fuller

If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism. —Seneca

Nature has given man no better thing than shortness of life. —Pliny the Elder