Nature/Animal Quotes

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” — Aristotle

“Nature does nothing uselessly.” — Aristotle

“All men by nature desire knowledge.” — Aristotle

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.” — Zeno

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” — E. B. White

“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” — Frank Lloyd Wright

“I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.”
– Charles Lindbergh

“I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.” — Joseph Addison

“Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.”
– George Eliot

“If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.” — Chief Seattle of the Suwamish Tribe, letter to President Franklin Pierce

“To insult someone we call him “bestial.” For deliberate cruelty and nature, “human” might be the greater insult.” — Isaac Asimov

“Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.” — Malayan proverb

“The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” — Jane Goodall

“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.” — Mark Twain

“Protect these harmless gentle cousins…” — Sir Arthur C. Clarke, on Gorillas

“Mountain gorillas are almost the closest relatives we have, and they will die if we don’t help them.” — Douglas Adams

“Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.” — Charles Darwin

“The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many”. — Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man

“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities… still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” -– Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871)

“Though human ingenuity in various inventions uses different instruments for the same end, it will never discover an invention more beautiful, easier, or more economical than nature’s, because in her inventions nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“First I shall do some experiments before I proceed farther, because my intention is to cite experience first and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.  And this is the true rule by which those who speculate about the effects of nature must proceed.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Darwin Day

Today is Darwin Day! Charles Darwin was born today in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. I’m not sure what one is supposed to do on Darwin Day, but you could always read Origin of Species or The Descent of Man or The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Good reading. Or think about evolution. The possibilities are endless!