Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

In art the best is good enough.

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

True Scouts are the best friends of animals, for from living in the woods and wilds, and practising observation and tracking, they get to know more than other people about the ways and habits of birds and animals, and therefore they understand them and are more in sympathy with them.

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

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

There are trees of a thousand sorts, and all have their several fruits; and I feel the most unhappy man in the world not to know them, for I am well assured that they are all valuable. I bring home specimens of them, and also of the land.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons and actions are understandable to man or not.

The waving of a pine tree on the top of a mountain – a magic wand in Nature’s hand – every devout mountaineer knows its power; but the marvelous beauty value of what the Scotch call a breckan in a still dell, what poet has sung this?

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

Nature teaches us that tens of billions of light years may have passed, and life in all of its expressions has always been subjected to an incredible combination of matter and radiation.

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

I have no hostility to nature, but a child’s love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

All art is dependent on technology because it’s a human endeavour, so even when you’re using charcoal on a wall or designed the proscenium arch, that’s technology.

Seeing is not always believing.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

Art was, seriously, the only thing I’d ever wanted to own. It has always been for me a stable nourishment. I use it. It can change the way that I feel in the mornings.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men’s lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed – it is a process of elimination.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!

Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.

Well, Art is Art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.

A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times. It’s best not to ask questions and just enjoy.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.

Nature has always had more force than education.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

I have been very interested and intrigued and congratulatory toward President Bush and his paintings.

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one’s reason; bad people stir one’s imagination.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.