No better place to start than this: I speak for the trees. The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)
During the silent stillness of January, tree frogs sleep, snow fleas leap, black bears ready themselves to give birth, and maple buds ready themselves to grow red. Here are some more quotes to feed our souls and warm our spirits in our own cold but anticipatory season.
Each of us possesses five fundamental, enthralling maps to the natural world: sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell. Ellen Meloy
Make sure you’re alive. Halluci-Nation (indigenous musical group)
I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it. William Shakespeare
Beauty is incomprehensible. Barry Lopez
If you really take it all in, it takes your breath away. Vincent Randall (Apache)
Nature is the art of God. Sir Thomas Browne
Mother Earth is not a resource; she is an heirloom. David Ipina
The world’s big, and I want to have a good look before it gets dark. John Muir
The land knows you, even when you are lost. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine…meanwhile, the world goes on… meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Mary Oliver
Our spirits, too, need simple things, elemental things, the sun and the wind and the rain, moonlight and starlight, sunrise and mist and mossy forest trails, the perfumes of dawn…and the ancient music among the trees. Edwin Way Teale
When despair for the world grows in me…I come into the peace of wild things…I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature. Rachel Carson
We will grieve not, rather find, strength in what remains behind. William Wordsworth
What if we behave as if we love the future? Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
The earth is a fine place and worth fighting for. Ernest Hemingway
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. Ansel Adams
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau
Non-conformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals. Aldo Leopold
People ask me to be reasonable. Why would I want to do that? Reasonable people never get anything done. Martin Litton
We have it in our power to begin the world over again. Thomas Paine
Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground. Theodore Roosevelt
I don’t have time for aches and pains. I still have a job to do. Jane Goodall
In affectionate memory of Shoshana Levinson.
Peace, love, and hope in 2025,
George Jacobi