"I want to think about trees. Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees. There are creatures under our feet, creatures that live over our heads, but trees live quite convincingly in the same filament of air we inhabit, and in addition, they extend impressively in both directions, up and down, shearing rock and fanning air, doing their real business just out of reach."

Nature, Time, Presence, Observation

2

Create Your Own Wallpaper

Standard

Customized

"I want to think about trees. Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees. There are creatures under our feet, creatures that live over our heads, but trees live quite convincingly in the same filament of air we inhabit, and in addition, they extend impressively in both directions, up and down, shearing rock and fanning air, doing their real business just out of reach."

Exlpore more Nature quotes

"Life is a flowing river. We came from earth and water. We will go back there after the magic of life."

Debasish Mridha, American Author

Nature, Life, River, Water, Earth

"Clear skies do not promise rain."

Matshona Dhliwayo, Zimbabwean Philosopher

Nature, Clear Skies, Rain, Uncertainty, Hope

"Spring dances with joy in every flower and in every bud letting us know that changes are beautiful and an inevitable law of life."

Debasish Mridha, American Author

Nature, Spring, Joy, Change, Life

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet

Nature, Philosophy, Truth, Life

"Every flower returns to sleep with the earth."

Suzy Kassem, American Writer

Nature, Cycle, Life, Death

"Spring is the only season that flutters in on gentle wings and builds nests in our hearts."

Toni Sorenson, American Author

Nature, Spring, Hope, Beauty

"A puddle repeats infinity, and is full of light; nevertheless, if analyzed objectively, a puddle is a piece of dirty water spread very thin on mud."

Gilbert K. Chesterton, English Writer

Nature, Infinity, Light, Reflection

"To country people Cows are mild,And flee from any stick they throw;But I'm a timid town bred child,And all the cattle seem to know."

T. S. Eliot, American Poet

Nature, Childhood, Animals, Fear

"The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort."

Terry Pratchett, English Author

Nature, Sun, Morning, Effort, Laziness

"Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval."

Oscar Wilde, Irish Dramatist

Nature, Pleasure, Approval, Test

Explore more quotes by Annie Dillard

"Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles."

Writing

"The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write."

Literature

"Aim for the chopping block. If you aim for the wood, you will have nothing. Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block."

Nothing

"I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs."

Adventure

"I would like to learn, or remember, how to live."

Learning

"Somewhere and I can't find where I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary priest 'If I did not know about God and sin would I go to hell?' 'No' said the priest 'not if you did not know.' 'Then why ' asked the Eskimo earnestly 'did you tell me?'"

Philosophy

"I woke in bits, like all children, piecemeal over the years. I discovered myself and the world, and forgot them, and discovered them again."

Family

"Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination without passing through the world."

Imagination

"I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary priest, 'If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?' 'No,' said the priest, 'not if you did not know.' 'Then why,' asked the Eskimo earnestly, 'did you tell me?"

Ethics

"On plenty of days the writer can write three or four pages, and on plenty of other days he concludes he must throw them away."

Art