Quotes by Naturalists

My feathered friends were so much to me that I am constantly tempted to make this sketch of my first years a book about birds and little else.
William Henry Hudson
I can't be expected to produce deathless prose in an atmosphere of gloom and eucalyptus.
Gerald Durrell
For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,With a pulse of evil that throbs and beats;And men are whithered before their primeBy the curse paved in with the lanes and streets.And lungs are poisoned and shoulders bowed, In the smothering reek of mill and mine;And death stalks in on the struggling crowd—But he shuns the shadow of the oak and pine
George Washington Sears
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
Charles Darwin
A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work.
John Lubbock
I am only an average man but by George I work harder at it than the average man.
Theodore Roosevelt
One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words." When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a "weasel word" after another there is nothing left of the other.
Theodore Roosevelt
Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
Theodore Roosevelt
Do what you can with what you have where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt
I was born with a chronic anxiety about the weather.
John Burroughs
The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider's web.
Edwin Way Teale
Many without punishment none without sin.
John Ray
A poor woman from Manchester on being taken to the seaside is said to have expressed her delight on seeing for the first time something of which there was enough for everybody.
John Lubbock
Freedom from worries and surcease from strain are illusions that always inhabit the distance.
Edwin Way Teale
It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks.
Theodore Roosevelt
The measure of an enthusiasm must be taken between interesting events. It is between bites that the lukewarm angler loses heart.
Edwin Way Teale
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
Theodore Roosevelt
I feel like a Bull Moose.
Theodore Roosevelt
I want to see you shoot the way you shout.
Theodore Roosevelt
Only a few human beings should grow to the square mile they are commonly planted too close.
William T. Davis
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life and the labors of life reduce themselves.
Edwin Way Teale
I don't want to be a passenger in my own life.
Diane Ackerman
I care not what others think of what I do but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!
Theodore Roosevelt
Security depends not so much upon how much you have as upon how much you can do without.
Joseph Wood Krutch
Though many have tried no one has ever yet explained away the decisive fact that science which can do so much cannot decide what it ought to do.
Joseph Wood Krutch
To render ourselves insensible to pain we must forfeit also the possibilities of happiness.
John Lubbock
As for a future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague possibilities.
Charles Darwin
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us and I for one must be content to remain agnostic.
Charles Darwin
As for future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.
Charles Darwin
Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.
Theodore Roosevelt
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
John Lubbock
My hat's in the ring. The fight is one and I'm stripped to the buff.
Theodore Roosevelt
His only fault is that he has no fault.
Pliny
Most of us can as we choose make of this world either a palace or a prison.
Sir John Lubbock
Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.
Joseph Wood Krutch
Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on hold fast hold out. Patience is genius.
Comte de Buffon
When I look in the glass I see that every line in my face means pessimism but in spite of my face - that is my experience - I remain an optimist.
Richard Jeffries
The longest day is soon ended.
Pliny
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think all the walks I want to take all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.
John Burroughs
A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.
Charles Darwin
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir
When a man wantonly destroys a work of man we call him a vandal when a man destroys one of the works of God we call him a sportsman.
Joseph Wood Krutch
The radiance in some places is so great as to be fairly dazzling . . . every crystal every flower a window opening into heaven a mirror reflecting the Creator.
John Muir
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings: Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into flowers the winds will blow their freshness into you and the storms their energy and cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir
I have called this principle by which each slight variation if useful is preserved by the term natural selection.
Charles Darwin
The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the "Survival of the fittest" is more accurate and is sometimes equally convenient.
Charles Darwin
Light may be shed on man and his origins.
Charles Darwin
As for a future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague possibilities.
Charles Darwin
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us and I for one must be content to remain agnostic.
Charles Darwin
As for future life every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.
Charles Darwin
Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.
Theodore Roosevelt
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
John Lubbock
My hat's in the ring. The fight is one and I'm stripped to the buff.
Theodore Roosevelt
His only fault is that he has no fault.
Pliny
Most of us can as we choose make of this world either a palace or a prison.
Sir John Lubbock
Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.
Joseph Wood Krutch
Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on hold fast hold out. Patience is genius.
Comte de Buffon
When I look in the glass I see that every line in my face means pessimism but in spite of my face - that is my experience - I remain an optimist.
Richard Jeffries
The longest day is soon ended.
Pliny
Do what you can with what you have where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt