Nature

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.

-William Blake


I don't understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we destroy something created by nature we call it progress.

-Ed Begley Jr.


If you want to find the secrets of the universe think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.

-Nikola Tesla


Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not.  Both are equally terrifying.

-Arthur C. Clarke


Consider Nature as being the most beautiful sanctuary and expression of Divine Perfection on Earth. Respect life in all its forms, and look upon animals as conscious and sensitive beings - not as mere living things.

-Rose Croix Code of Life


We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild’. Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was it ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.

-Ogala Lakota Sioux Chief Standing Bear


Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. 

-Cree Indian Proverb


The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

-John Muir


I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

-John Burroughs


When we learn to trust the Universe, we shall be happy, prosperous and well.  We must learn to come under that Divine Government, and accept the fact that Nature’s table is ever filled.  Never was there a Cosmic famine.  “The finite alone has wrought and suffered, the Infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.”  God is always God.  No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation, may be, there is always something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated.  We may stumble, but always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.

-Ernest Homes, The Science of Mind


The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.

-Herman E. Daly


When the Earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the Earth from many colors, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again, they shall be known as The Warriors of the Rainbow.

-Rainbow Warrior


Each and every animal on earth has as much right to be here as you and me.

-Anthony Douglas Williams


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

-John Muir


May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears, and, above all, may silence make you strong.

-Chief Dan George


We like to be out in nature so much because it has no opinion about us.

-Freidrich Nietzsche


The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.  All things are connected like the blood that unites one family.

Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

The earth is sacred and men and animals are but one part of it.  

Treat the earth with respect so that it lasts for centuries to come and is a place of wonder and beauty for our children.

― Extract from Chief Seattle


Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood.  You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die.

-John Hollow Horn, Ogala Lajota


Man is the most insane species.  He worships an invisible God and slaughters a visible Nature... without realizing that this Nature he slaughters is this invisible God he worships.

-Hubert Reeves


I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out I found was really going in.

-John Muir


The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.

-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America


For the Lakota, kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them.

The animals had rights -- the right of human protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to our indebtedness -- and in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing.

This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled their being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave them reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all.

From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things -- the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals... Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.

-Chief Luther Standing Bear


I do not practice religion in accordance with the sacred rites.  I have made mysterious Nature my religion.  I do not believe that a man is any nearer to God for being clad in priestly garments, nor that one place in a town is better adapted to meditation than another.  When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvelous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me.  Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul.  Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpeted earth, … and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration. … To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.

-Claude Debussy


Your deepest roots are in nature.  No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation.

-Charles Cook


Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.  Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.  Be curious.  And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.  It matters that you don't just give up.

-Stephen Hawking


If you white men had never come here, this country would still be like it was. It would be all pure here. You call it wild, but it wasn’t really wild, it was free. Animals aren’t wild, they’re just free. And that’s the way we were. You called us wild, you called us savages. But we were just free! If we were savages, Columbus would never have gotten off the island alive. 

Our religion is all about thanking the Creator. That’s what we do when we pray. We don’t ask Him for things. We thank Him. We thank Him for the world and every animal and plant in it. We thank Him for everything that exists. We don’t take it for granted that a tree is just there. We thank the Creator for that tree. If we don’t thank Him, maybe the Creator’ll take that tree away... We are made from Mother Earth and we go back to Mother Earth. We can’t “own” Mother Earth. We’re just visiting here. We’re the Creator’s guests."

Quote: Leon Shenandoah, — former “Tadodaho” of the Grand Council of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. 

Photo: Red Wing, Crow. 1908.  by Edward S. Curtis


It’s the Hopi belief, that, if you’re not spiritually connected to the earth, and understand the spiritual reality of how to live on earth, it’s likely you will not make it. You should treat all things as Spirit – realize that we are ONE Family.

-Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman


All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.

-Max Planck, Nobel Price Winning Theoretical Physicist