How to Read Nature Quotes

“It should be expected that we will find wonder in a vast mountain landscape, but it is a more serious challenge to find wonder in a hill. It is a great achievement to find it in a molehill.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Connect with Nature

“Sadly, the natural world is not short of people who believe that rattling off Latin names incessantly makes them appear clever, whereas most of us know instinctively that this suggests insecurity at best, but possibly social and sexual dysfunction as well. If somebody corrects you sternly by using an obtuse name for something, they probably know neither human nature nor any other kind very profoundly.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Connect with Nature

“A combination of humility and aspiration is a trait found in the most interesting of people. Those who choose to reside purely in the practical or philosophical world tend to scorn the land that lies between these two areas, the natural world. But those rare individuals who do things that change the way we think, or think in a way that changes how we behave, have, without exception, understood the insight that reading nature can offer.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You’ve Never Noticed

“There comes a moment when these basic activities allow us to meet our ancestors briefly. Glancing past some nettles, we catch a glimpse of their hairy faces smiling back at us and grunting something to the effect of, “We might have been savages, but we weren’t idiots,” before they slope off to settle a mild dispute by clubbing someone to death. Fortunately, we can enjoy the best of both worlds: It is possible to revel in the satisfaction of fundamental activities without the need to witness blunt trauma.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You've Never Noticed

“Evolution is the sadistic headmaster of the Succeed-or-Die School of Invention, motto: Disce aut consumere!—“learn or get eaten!” It is sad and sometimes ugly when a species fails in this school, especially ugly if the change they are confronted with is caused by human thoughtlessness. Sometimes the two happen in tandem and ugliness can create unexpected beauty. New railway lines are notorious for the havoc and destruction they can bring to a landscape, impacting both natural and artificial environments. However, the need to keep general human traffic away from the iron dragons that pass along these new lines has created a new habitat and led to a renaissance in rare wildflowers in some areas. But perhaps the most surreal and ironic example of this is the fact that many naturalists now support the military’s habit of firing big explosive shells at landscapes. Exploding ordnance falling from the sky has the dependable effect of keeping humans away and, consequently, firing ranges have accidentally created some of the most healthy ecosystems in Britain. Naturalists and the military are now working more closely, and this unlikely partnership is becoming less accidental and more deliberate.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You've Never Noticed

“بین مرگ و زندگی شکافی است ولی اندازه‌ی این شکاف برای هر کس فرق می‌کند.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Connect with Nature

“علاقه‌ی ما به طبیعت معمولاً به این شکل آغاز نمی‌شود که عاشق کل طبیعت شویم، چون کلیت آن خیلی مبهم و در نتیجه به نظرمان بی‌معنی است. ولی در نقطه‌ای، چیزی از طبیعت کشف می‌کنیم که با شور و اشتیاق درونی ما سازگار است.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Connect with Nature

“WE WILL ALL develop a sudden interest in natural medicine if it promises a cure for a problem that is otherwise hard to tackle. The same children who recognize a stinging nettle so easily because of its painful effects learn their first natural medicine in the form of the dock leaf that can be rubbed on stings to make them less painful. Dock leaves do contain an antihistamine that may help soothe the sting, but the efficacy of this is still debated by scientists. The same scientists who are happy to refute the value of a dock leaf indoors are probably as likely as any of us to reach for one when stung outdoors. That is the difference between empirical knowledge and painful ankles.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Read Nature: Awaken Your Senses to the Outdoors You've Never Noticed