What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.

Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally. But in some of nature’s forests, the adventurous traveler seems a feeble, unwelcome creature; wild beasts and the weather trying to kill him, the rank, tangled vegetation, armed with spears and stinging needles, barring his way and making life a hard struggle.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

We’re all sinners. Everybody you meet all over the world is a sinner.

The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning, it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the globe.

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

First I shake the whole Apple tree, that the ripest might fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf.

Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t think about it, I just have it.

I love diversity.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

If you’re in a forest, the quality of the echo is very strange because echoes back off so many surfaces of all those trees that you get this strange, itchy ricochet effect.

I do know this: God does answer your prayers, but it’s not always in the way you expect. God knows what’s best for us, though, so there’s no need to worry when things don’t go how we originally wanted them to go.

Walking is man’s best medicine.

But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.

In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.

It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

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?

I love the sea.

Always say ‚yes‘ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‚yes‘ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you.

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the ‚Not Me,‘ that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, ‚Nature.‘

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

If I see a mountain, I just pick up and hike it.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

There’s always going to be people who don’t understand or accept the united science, and I will just ignore them, as I’m only acting and communicating on the science.

Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in the night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

The more I see of deer, the more I admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles, across canons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth beauty and courage.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

A true man hates no one.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

It is easier to feel than to realize, or in any way explain, Yosemite grandeur. The magnitudes of the rocks and trees and streams are so delicately harmonized, they are mostly hidden.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.

To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.

I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Dear friends, we may well sing to our Beloved when it is near the time of our departure. It draws near, and as it approaches, we must not dread it, but rather thank God for it.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

See that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.