For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! read more

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!

That man's best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature's infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should read more

That man's best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature's infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should make himself an imitation, this is the fact which Nature moans over, and deprecates beseechingly. Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals! is the song she sings through warbling birds, and whispering pines, and roaring waves, and screeching winds.

Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of read more

Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her language.

I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods.

I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods.

The poetry of the earth is never dead.

The poetry of the earth is never dead.

The law of nature is the strictest expression of necessity.

The law of nature is the strictest expression of necessity.

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would read more

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living

Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art.
[Lat., Meliora sunt ea quae natura quam illa read more

Things perfected by nature are better than those finished by art.
[Lat., Meliora sunt ea quae natura quam illa quae arte perfecta
sunt.]

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still read more

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.