Quotations on Nature and Writing
Page 3

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge...observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. --Denis Diderot

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. --George Washington Carver

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. --James Barrie

Laughter is the sun which drives winter from the human face. --Victor Hugo

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
--James Russell Lowell

Now I understand not only the man who prays;
now I understand the man who breaks into song.
Thirst is long lasting and the hillside twisting;
but a lily can ensnare our gaze.

Our eyes grow heavy with weeping,
yet a brook can make us smile.
A skylark’s song bursting heavenward
makes us forget it is hard to die.
--from "Serene Words" by Gabriela Mistral

A poem is a shell that echoes the music of the world.
--Octavio Paz

If it happens that what you write for yourself becomes something for others as well, especially for a young reader, then you have achieved something.
--Octavio Paz