Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they read more

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it read more

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower read more

The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

Whenever man comes up with a better mousetrap, nature immediately comes up with a better mouse.

Whenever man comes up with a better mousetrap, nature immediately comes up with a better mouse.

I am a part of all you see
In Nature: part of all you feel:
I am read more

I am a part of all you see
In Nature: part of all you feel:
I am the impact of the bee
Upon the blossom; in the tree
I am the sap--that shall reveal
The leaf, the bloom--that flows and flutes
Up from the darkness through its roots.

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full read more

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips.

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill read more

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism