The quote database

Sitting down on a block of granite, it was delightful to watch the various insects and birds as they flew past.

Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest.

This west coast makes me remember with pleasure the free, unbounded plains of Patagonia; yet, with the true spirit of contradiction, I cannot forget how sublime is the silence of the forest.

Real wealth consists in things of utility and beauty, in things that help to create strong, beautiful bodies and surroundings inspiring to live in.

The forest is an eternal mediator between winds and gravity in their never-ending struggle for the possession of the waters.

Have you anything better or greater to see than the sun, the moon, the stars, the whole earth, the sea?

My world is built of touch-sensations, devoid of physical colour and sound; but without colour and sound it breathes and throbs with life.

Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail.

The man who doubts it, can never have watched the first gleams of tenderness dawning in the clear eyes of one who loves; sunrise itself is a lesser marvel.

The dear privacy and retirement and solitude which winter makes possible!

Now at least the moon is full, and I walk alone, which is best by night, if not by day always.

Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children.

Entomology extends the limits of being in a new direction, so that I walk in nature with a sense of greater space and freedom.

Nature will bear the closest inspection; she invites us to lay our eye level with the smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health.

I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one's life and sigh.

This is a glorious region, and the air and life are intoxicating.

Nature loves such woods, and places her own seal upon them.

The emotions excited by the songs of these thrushes belong to a higher order, springing as they do from our deepest sense of the beauty and harmony of the world.

Standing here in the deep, brooding silence all the wilderness seems motionless, as if the work of creation were done.

After listening to it in all kinds of winds, night and day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my position on the mountains by this pine-music alone.

Every feature became more rigidly alpine, without, however, producing any chilling effect; for going to the mountains is like going home.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

Thousands of God's wild blessings will search you and soak you as if you were sponge, and the big days will go by uncounted.

The whole world seems richer now that I have found this plant in so noble a landscape.