I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains. One may read more

I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains. One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge, but one misses a world of loveliness.

I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.

I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.

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.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

Wolves are very resourceful. All they need to survive is for people not to shoot them.

Wolves are very resourceful. All they need to survive is for people not to shoot them.

Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings.

Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings.

I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant
And Autumn read more

I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant
And Autumn garner to the end of time.
I trust in God--the right shall be the right
And other than the wrong, while he endures;
I trust in my own soul, that can perceive
The outward and the inward, Nature's good
And God's.

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.