#nature

There is indeed a certain sense of gratification when we do a good deed that gives us inward satisfaction, and a generous pride that accompanies a good conscience…These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail. “On Repentance ↗

— Michel de Montaigne

#service #nature

I worship impersonal Nature, which is neither "good" or "bad", and who knows neither love nor hatred. I worship Life; the Sun, Sustainer of life. I believe in the Law of everlasting struggle, which is the law of life, and in the duty of the best specimens of our race — the natural élite of mankind — to rule the earth, and evolve out of themselves a caste of supermen, a people 'like unto the Gods'. ↗

— Savitri Devi

#nature #truth #life

There is a deep and undeniable sadness in all this: whenever we see the dawn of an eternal good that will never be overcome by evil – an evil that is itself eternal but will never succeed in overcoming good – whenever we see this dawn, the blood of old people and children is always shed. ↗

— Vasily Grossman

#human-nature #life #life

Nature was quick to pass the sponge of her deluges over these awkward sketches (dinosaurs), these first nightmares of Life. ↗

— Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

#nature #life

Our approach to reality, our sense of reality, cannot assume that the text of nature, the book of life, is a cryptogram concealing just a single meaning. Rather, it is an expanding riddle of a multiplicity of resonating images. ↗

— Peter Redgrove

#meaning #nature #reality #symbols #life

How wrong and petty any life is. ↗

— David Wojahn

#human-nature #experience

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#change #climate #common #common sense #fool

Many have argued that a vacuum does not exist, others claim it exists only with difficulty in spite of the repugnance of nature; I know of no one who claims it easily exists without any resistance from nature. ↗

— Evangelista Torricelli

#argued #claim #claims #difficulty #does

I am one of those people who are blessed, or cursed, with a nature which has to interfere. If I see a thing that needs doing I do it. ↗

— Margery Allingham

#blessed #cursed #doing #i #i am

Really to believe in human nature while striving to know the thousand forces that warp it from its ideal development-to call for and expect much from men and women, and not to be disappointed and embittered if they fall short- to try to do good with people rather than to them- this is my religion on its human side. And if God exists, I think that he must be in the warm sun, in the kindly actions of the people we know and read of, in the beautiful things of art and nature, and in the closeness of friendships. ↗

— Randolph Bourne

#human-nature #relationships #spirituality #wisdom #art