Nature,—a thing which science and art never appear to see with the same eyes. If to an artist Nature has a soul, why, so has a steam-engine. Art gifts with soul all matter that it contemplates; science turns all that is already gifted with soul into matter.—Bulwer-Lytton.
Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the One breaks in everywhere.—Emerson.
Nature is poetic, but not mankind. When one aims at truth it is easier to find the poetic side of nature than of man.—X. Doudan.
All nature is a vast symbolism; every material fact has sheathed within it a spiritual truth.—Chapin.
Nature is no sentimentalist,—does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or a woman, but swallows your ships like a grain of dust. The cold, inconsiderate of persons, tingles your blood, benumbs your feet, freezes a man like an apple. The diseases, the elements, fortune, gravity, lightning, respect no persons.—Emerson.
Nature imitates herself. A grain thrown into good ground brings forth fruit: a principle thrown into a good mind brings forth fruit. Everything is created and conducted by the same Master,—the root, the branch, the fruits,—the principles, the consequences.—Pascal.
A noble nature can alone attract the noble, and alone knows how to retain them.—Goethe.
Nature, the vicar of the almighty Lord.—Chaucer.
A poet ought not to pick Nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.—Coleridge.
We, by art, unteach what Nature taught.—Dryden.