Trees

"It is the multitude of trees that make a forest. Let us be like those [...] useful trees benefitting all sentient beings."

"The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity."

"Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evaporation so much, that woods are always moist: no wonder therefore that they contribute much to pools and streams. That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears from a well known fact in North-America; for, since the woods and forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water have much diminished; so that some streams, that were very considerable a century ago, will not now drive a common mill."

"The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago; the second best time is today"

"To plant trees is an act of faith."

"The place is all Awave with trees, Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded, Acacias having drunk the lees Of the night-dew, faint headed, And wan, grey olive-woods, which seem The fittest foliage for a dream."

"Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs No school of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen Enough of all its sorrows, crimes and cares, To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm To thy sick heart."

"The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,—ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication."

"Oh, leave this barren spot to me! Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree!"

"Es ist dafür gesorgt, dass die Bäume nicht in den Himmel wachsen."

"Where is the pride of Summer,—the green prime,— The many, many leaves all twinkling?—three On the mossed elm; three on the naked lime Trembling,—and one upon the old oak tree! Where is the Dryad's immortality?"

"Nullam vare, sacra vite prius arborem."

"I think that I shall never scan A tree as lovely as a man. * * * * A tree depicts divinest plan, But God himself lives in a man."

"I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. * * * * Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree."

"It was the noise Of ancient trees falling while all was still Before the storm, in the long interval Between the gathering clouds and that light breeze Which Germans call the Wind's bride."

"This is the forest primeval."

"Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough!In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now."

"When the sappy boughs Attire themselves with blooms, sweet rudiments Of future harvest."

"The highest and most lofty trees have the most reason to dread the thunder."

"Stultus est qui fructus magnarum arborum spectat, altitudinem non metitur."

"So bright in death I used to say, So beautiful through frost and cold! A lovelier thing I know to-day, The leaf is growing old, And wears in grace of duty done, The gold and scarlet of the sun."

"Now all the tree-tops lay asleep, Like green waves on the sea, As still as in the silent deep The ocean-woods may be."

"The trees were gazing up into the sky, Their bare arms stretched in prayer for the snows."

"A temple whose transepts are measured by miles, Whose chancel has morning for priest, Whose floor-work the foot of no spoiler defiles, Whose musical silence no music beguiles, No festivals limit its feast."

"The woods appear With crimson blotches deeply dashed and crossed,— Sign of the fatal pestilence of Frost."

"The linden broke her ranks and rent The woodbine wreaths that bind her, And down the middle buzz! she went With all her bees behind her! The poplars, in long order due, With cypress promenaded, The shock-head willows two and two By rivers gallopaded."

"O Love, what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize, and vine."

"Sure thou did'st nourish once! and many springs, Many bright mornings, much dew, many showers, Passed o'er thy head; many light hearts and wings, Which now are dead, lodg'd in thy living bowers. And still a new succession sings and flies; Fresh groves grow up, and their green branches shoot Towards the old and still-enduring skies; While the low violet thrives at their root."

"In such green palaces the first kings reign'd, Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd; With such old counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise."

"A brotherhood of venerable Trees."

"One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can."

"The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

"Thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life)."

"In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be."

"The tree is known by his fruit."

"Spreading himself like a green bay-tree."

"Happy is the man … his delights is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither."

"The fruitage of the righteous one is a tree of life, and the one who wins souls is wise."

"Expectation postponed makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is a tree of life."

"The angel cried with a loud voice, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees."

"The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said; The recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is a kind of grief.Is it that they are born again And we grow old? No, they die too. Their yearly trick of looking new Is written down in rings of grain.Yet still the unresting castles thresh In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh, afresh."

"Lightly the breath of the spring wind blows,"

"A great acacia, with its slender trunk And overpoise of multitudinous leaves, (In which a hundred fields might spill their dew And intense verdure, yet find room enough) Stood reconciling all the place with green."

"Light-leaved acacias, by the door, Stood up in balmy air, Clusters of blossomed moonlight bore, And breathed a perfume rare."

"Our rocks are rough, but smiling there Th' acacia waves her yellow hair, Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less For flow'ring in a wilderness."

"I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God." and the almond tree blossomed."

"I heard the bells from the future churches, the children playing and laughing in the schoolyards … and here was an almond tree in bloom before me: I must reach out and cut a flowering branch. For, by believing passionately in something which still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired, whatever we have not irrigated with our blood to such a degree that it becomes strong enough to stride across the somber threshold of nonexistence."

"The ash her purple drops forgivingly And sadly, breaking not the general hush; The maple swamps glow like a sunset sea, Each leaf a ripple with its separate flush; All round the wood's edge creeps the skirting blaze, Of bushes low, as when, on cloudy days, Ere the rain falls, the cautious farmer burns his brush."

"THE quiet of the evening hour Was laid on every summer leaf; That purple shade was on each flower, At once so beautiful, so brief, Only the aspen knew not rest, But still, with an unquiet song, Kept murmuring to the gentle west, And cast a changeful shade along."

"What whispers so strange at the hour of midnight, From the aspen leaves trembling so wildly? Why in the lone wood sings it sad, when the bright Full moon beams upon it so mildly?"