beautiful

"How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and the heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!"
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

sweet simple things

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~

dialogues

“The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.”
~ Auguste Rodin ~

fragments of things

"I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could."
~ Georgia O'Keeffe ~

madhouse

“Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~

violet-scented

“It was a still afternoon--the golden light was lingering languidly among the upper boughs, only glancing down here and there on the purple pathway and its edge of faintly sprinkled moss: an afternoon in which destiny disguises her cold awful face behind a hazy radiant veil, encloses us in warm downy wings, and poisons us with violet-scented breath."
~ George Eliot ~

subtle something

“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 emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

why not

“Some men see things as they are and say why... I dream of things that never were and say why not."
~ George Bernard Shaw ~

the peace of wild things

“I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
~ Wendell Berry ~

say it hot

"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot."
~ D.H. Lawrence ~

why not

“Some men see things as they are and say why... I dream of things that never were and say why not."
~ George Bernard Shaw ~

deep roots

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~

guiding star

"Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me."
~ Ayn Rand ~

long live

“What would the world be, once bereft of wet and wildness?
Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
~ Gerard Manley Hopkins ~

joys

“...she was not accustomed to taste the joys of solitude except in company..."
~ Edith Wharton ~

sunshine

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."
~ Anthony J. D'Angelo ~

twin arrows

"Young people do not perceive at once that the giver of wounds is the enemy and the quoted tattle merely the arrow."
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald ~

misunderstanding

"I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error."
~ Sara Stein ~

gilded

“My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy."
~ Mary Shelley ~

sleeps

“The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

flee

"To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.
~ Emily Dickinson ~

yesterday

"Who has seen yesterday?"
~ Lord Byron ~

wide open

"Wide open to the sun."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier ~

if only

"If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could!"
~ Antonio Porchia ~

fortune

“Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.”
~ William Shakespeare ~

tread softly

"But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
~ William Butler Yeats ~

satisfies

“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."
~ Walt Whitman ~

all the difference

"I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
~ Robert Frost ~

one touch

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
~ William Shakespeare ~