The Tree

by John Fowles

only fools think our attitude to our fellow-men is a thing distinct from our attitude to ‘lesser’ life on this planet.

Achieving a relationship with nature is both a science and an art, beyond mere knowledge or mere feeling alone;

The subtlest of our alienations from it, the most difficult to comprehend, is our need to use it in some way, to derive some personal yield.

No art is truly teachable in its essence.

in nine cases out of ten what natural knowledge and imagination cannot supply is in any case precisely what needs to be left out.

I have method in nothing, and powers of concentration, of patience in acquiring true specialized knowledge, that would disgrace a child.