Some of these environmental quotes and quotes about children in the environment are from modern times, and some are ancient by today’s standards. No matter when they were said or written, it’s astonishing how significant these words remain.
We hope these nature quotes inspire you and encourage a lifelong love of the outdoors within your family.
Inspiring Environmental Quotes
We’re starting this list of nature quotes with one of our many favorites. Nature isn’t perfectly arranged. It’s WILD. And we like it that way. We’re always going to gravitate toward a field of wildflowers over a perfectly manicured hedge.
In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. ~ Alice Walker
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead
The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth. ~ Chief Seattle
For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple. ~ Mary Oliver, Upstream
One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference—all the difference in the world! ~ Dr. Jane Goodall
He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower. ~ Mary Howitt
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Ghandi
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The earth has music for those who will listen. ~ George Santayana
If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. ~ David Sobel
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~ Khalil Gibran
How wild it was to let it be. ~ Cheryl Strayed
Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries. ~ Jimmy Carter
May your life preach more loudly than your lips. ~ William Ellery Channing
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~ John Muir
To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. ~ Helen Keller
Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. ~ Desmond Tutu
We will conserve only what we love. We love only what we know. We know only what we are taught. ~ Baba Dioum
The environment, after all, is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest. It is one thing that all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become. ~ Lady Bird Johnson
‘Heaven on Earth’ is a choice you must make, not a place you must find. ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more. ~ George Gordon Byron
The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. ~ Joseph Addison
All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child. ~ Marie Curie
The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard. ~ Gaylord Nelson
Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness. ~ Kahlil Gibran
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. ~ Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)
The Earth is what we all have in common. ~ Wendell Berry
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned will we realize we cannot eat money. ~ Alanis Obomsawin
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from. ~ Terry Tempest Williams
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. ~ Rachel Carson
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. ~ Lao Tzu
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~ Native American Proverb
I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery – air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.” ~ Sylvia Plath
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. ~ Albert Einstein
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~ John Muir
There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet. ~ Brooked Medicine Eagle
Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. ~ Albert Einstein
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
The poetry of the earth is never dead. ~ John Keats
To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. ~ Theodore Roosevelt
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ~ William Shakespeare
Let the children be free; encourage them;
let them run outside when it is raining;
let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water;
and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew,
let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet;
let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade;
let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.
~ Maria Montessori
Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~ Hans Christian Andersen
We must teach our children to smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, to see things grow, to hear the sun rise and night fall – to care. ~ John Cleal
A nation that destroys is soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~ Anne Frank
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. ~ Ansel Adams
Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. ~ Carl Sagan
Plant seeds of happiness, hope, success, and love; it will all come back to you in abundance. This is the law of nature. ~ Steve Maraboli
Do you have favorite quotes about nature? If so, tell us the environmental quotes you love in the comments.
If you’re an educator looking to take this further, find ways to talk with kids about climate change here.
Noted as “good for a green mama’s soul,” Green Child has grown into a resource valued by parents who care about bringing simplicity, compassion, social responsibility, and instinctual intelligence back to parenting.
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