Quotes About Wisdom

But what these men chant Nick half grasps, and when the songs are finished, he adds, Amen, if only because it may be the single oldest word he knows. The older the word, the more likely it is to be both useful and true. In fact, he read once, back in Iowa, the night the woman came to trouble him into life, that the word tree and the word truth come from the same root.

Earth had two kinds of people: those who could do the math and follow the science, and those who were happier with their own truths.

Tagore said, Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.

Life will not answer to reason. And meaning is too young a thing to have much power over it.

that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a

If you would learn the secrets of Nature, you must practice more humanity ...

The blessing of endless information: the Internet, democratizing even health care. Suppose we gave all pharmaceuticals an Amazon rating. The wisdom of crowds. Do away with experts altogether.

How much they knew, these new children. How concentrated their knowledge of every mechanism, except for life.

There's a Chinese saying. 'When is the best time to plan a tree? Twenty years ago.

Trees give it all away, don't they?

Sooner or later, all men will do and know all things.

She writes her favorite lines in the inside covers of her field notebooks and peeks at them when department politics and the cruelty of frightened humans get her down. The words withstand the full brutality of day. We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men. . . . In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.

The tree is saying things, in words before words. It says: Sun and water are questions endlessly worth answering. It says: A good answer must be reinvented many times, from scratch.

When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago.

The tree will outlive, by a hundred years and more, the man who has never heard of it.

Buddhism, the Four Immeasurables. "There are four good things worth practicing. Being kind toward everything alive. Staying level and steady. Feeling happy for any creature anywhere that is happy. And remembering that any suffering is also yours.

all growing things alone disclose the wordless mind of God.

real joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a breeze. as certain as weather coming from the west, the things people know for sure will change. there is no knowing for a fact. the only dependable things are humility and looking.

real joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a breeze.

A forest knows things. They wire themselves up underground. There are brains down there, ones our own brains aren't shaped to see. Root plasticity, solving problems and making decisions. Fungal synapses.

Earth's atmosphere at different times in history." You can't predict the past, Dad. "You can if you don't know it yet.

What else is there to say to a bear? 'Apologize!' I tell him. People very stupid. They forget everything--where they come from, where they go. I say, 'Don't worry. People leaving this world very soon. Then the bear get top bunk to himself again.

the Buddha's words: A tree is a wondrous thing that shelters, feeds, and protects all living things. It even offers shade to the axmen who destroy it.

Best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago." "Yep. And you always said the next best time was now." "Wrong. Next best time, nineteen years ago.