#Nature Quotes

“Wolves and bears, they say, casting their savagery aside, have done like offices of pity.”

“The weary sun hath made a golden setAnd by the bright tract of his fiery carGives token of a goodly day to-morrow.”

“Nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will.”

“Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones; Who, though they cannot answer my distress, Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes, For that they will not intercept my tale: When I do weep, they humbly at my feet Receive my tears and seem to weep with me; And, were they but attired in grave weeds, Rome could afford no tribune like to these.”

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

“On a day - alack the day! -Love, whose month is ever May,Spied a blossom passing fairPlaying in the wanton air”

“When thou cam'st first, Thou strok'st me and made much of me; wouldst give me Water with berries in't; and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night; and then I loved thee And showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle, The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.”

“When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand.”

“Look, what envious streaks do lace the severing clouds in yonder east! Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops.”

“These are the forgeries of jealousy; And never, since the middle summer's spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or in the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.”

“Well-apparel'd April on the heelOf limping Winter treads.”

“The deep of night is crept upon our talk,And Nature must obey necessity.”

“Short summers lightly have a forward spring.”

“Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands. Curtsied when you have and kissed The wild waves whist, Foot is featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burden bear. Ariel's song, scene II, Act I”

“The leopard does not change his spots.”

“How sometimes nature will betray its folly, Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime To harder bosoms!”

“How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!”

“He was met even now As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud; Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With bur-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining corn.”

“Men judge by the complexion of the sky The state and inclination of the day.”

“The seasons alter: hoary-headed frostsFall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.”

“In nature's infinite book of secrecyA little I can read.”

“Sir, the year growing ancient,Not yet on summer's death nor on the birthOf trembling winter, the fairest flowers o' th' seasonAre our carnations and streaked gillyvors,Which some call nature's bastards.”

“Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,Pale in her anger washes all the air,That rheumatic diseases do abound;And through this distemperature we seeThe seasons alter: hoary-headed frostsFall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.”

“On the bat’s back I do fly After summer merrily.”

“Yon grey linesThat fret the clouds are messengers of day.”

“... the spring, the summer, The chilling autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world By their increase, now knows not which is which.”

“The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits.”

“The chameleon Love can feed on the air”

“Full many a glorious morn I have seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy.”

“When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,Threatening the welkin with his big-swollen face?”

“A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; His dew falls everywhere.”

“The moon, like to a silver bow new bent in heaven.”

“Tis often seenAdoption strives with nature; and choice breedsA native slip to us from foreign lands.”

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As mans ingratitude Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend rememberd not.”

“Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace.”

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,Hath not old custom made this life more sweetThan that of painted pomp? Are not these woodsMore free from peril than the envious court?”

“The lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair: The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, One blushing shame, another white despair; A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath; But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth A vengeful canker eat him up to death. More flowers I noted, yet I none could see But sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee.”

“Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun, and with him rise weeping.”

“Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus black as e'er was crow; Gloves as sweet as damask roses.”

“We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.”

“Nature does require her time of preservation, which perforce, I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal, must give my attendance to.”

“Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are 'cleptAll by the name of dogs: the valued fileDistinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,The housekeeper, the hunter, every oneAccording to the gift which bounteous natureHath in him closed.”

“See where she comes apparelled like the spring.”

“My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind; So flew'd, so sanded; their heads are hung with ears that sweep away the morning dew.”

“Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow'st the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Here's three on's are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more than such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.”

“I have heard it saidThere is an art which in their piedness sharesWith great creating nature.”

“The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us.”

“Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not know our place again.”

“Thy dangerous glancesmake women of men;new-born, we are meltinginto nature again.”

“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”