The Nature of Trees

Trees in Quotes

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

“That each day I may walk unceasingly on the banks of my water, that my soul may repose on the branches of the trees which I planted, that I may refresh myself under the shadow of my sycamore.”
-- Egyptian tomb inscription, circa 1400 BC

“Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence. And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky. For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital to our own lives; or even, more specifically, some secret vital to our real, our lasting and spiritual existence.”
-- Kim Taplin, Tongues in Trees

The best friend of earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

When walking through a warm and lush forest setting one's thoughts can easily take flights of fancy. It is not difficult to shed the layers of modern life and find one's more subtle or primitive beginnings. Somewhere from deep within the spirit and majesty of each single tree steps forth and at once one can find themselves transported to a world of shadow and shade.
-- Morgan La Fey, Sacred Trees

The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it affords protection to all beings.
-- Buddhist Sutra

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.
-- Plants and Botany Trivia

Whoever does not love trees, does not love God.
-- Elder Amphilochios of Patmos (1888-1970)

When I can go just where I want to go. There is a copse of birch trees that I know; And, as in Eden Adam walked with God, When in that quiet aisle my feet have trod I have found peace among the silver trees, Known comfort in the cool kiss of the breeze Heard music in its whisper, and have known Most certainly that I was not alone! My roots are in the depths of the woods.
-- Galle

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
-- Gandhi

Trees have from time immemorial been closely associated with magic. These stout members of the vegetable kingdom may stand for as long as a thousand years, and tower far above our mortal heads. As such they are symbols and keepers of unlimited power, longevity, and timelessness. An untouched forest, studded with trees of all ages, sizes and types, is more than a mysterious, magical place - it is one of the energy reservoirs of nature. Within its boundaries stand ancient and new sentinels, guardians of the universal force which has manifested on the the Earth ...
-- Scott Cunningham, Earth Power: Techniques of Natural Magick

Being thus prepared for us in all ways, and made beautiful, and good for food, and for building, and for instruments of our hands, this race of plants, deserving boundless affection and admiration from us, becomes, in proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly perfect test of our being in right temper of mind and way of life; so that no one can be far wrong in either who loves trees enough, and everyone is assuredly wrong in both who does not love them, if his life has brought them in his way.
-- John Ruskin, 1819-1900, Modern Painters VI

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.
-- William Blake, 1799, The Letters

Do not be afraid to go out on a limb ... That's where the fruit is.
-- Anonymous

The groves were God's first temples.
-- William Cullen Bryant, A Forest Hymn

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, and the awful gloom of this doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?
-- Seneca

The patient. - The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait: and both without impatience: - they give no thought to the little people beneath them devoured by their impatience and their curiosity.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and His Shadow

Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence. And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky. For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital to our own lives; or even, more specifically, some secret vital to our real, our lasting and spiritual existence.
-- Kim Taplin, Tongues in Trees

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
-- Dr. Suess

All it has experienced, tasted, suffered: The course of years, generations of animals, Oppression, recovery, friendship of sun and - Wind Will pour forth each day in the song Of its rustling foliage, in the friendly Gesture of its gently swaying crown, In the delicate sweet scent of resinous Sap moistening the sleep-glued buds, And the eternal game of lights and Shadows it plays with itself, content.
-- Herman Hesse, Wandering Notes and Sketches

The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
-- Hermann Hesse, Wandering

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
-- Martin Luther

Alone with myself
The trees bend to caress me
The shade hugs my heart
-- Candy Polgar