199 Wonderful and Inspiring Quotes on Woods and Forests

Jared Jeric dela Cruz

Since time immemorial, Mother Nature has been the foremost source of inspiration to humankind. The sight of towering mountains and lofty peaks have challenged the human spirit ever since, moving it to feats of daring and courage. The vast seas and oceans, whether in vivid rage or in serene stillness, have ever since awakened an insatiable longing within the human heart and mind to roam, explore, and discover. But most of all, the woods and the forests, and all manner of places where trees dwell and hold sway, have ever since stirred the human soul, causing erstwhile unpoetic men and women to write poems, songs, and works of prose of surpassing beauty.

Indeed, there is something about the woods and the forests that affects the human soul with startling – yet welcome and pleasant – ease and swiftness. Perhaps it is the aura of mystery and enchantment that often shroud those woodland halls, inviting, beckoning eager eyes and wandering feet. Or perhaps it is the deep silence that suffuses the boughs and branches of the trees, promising peace and solitude to weary hearts and overburdened minds. Still, it might be the very ancientry of those venerable sylvan realms, those veritable repositories of forgotten lore, history, and wisdom from ages long gone.

But no matter the reason that renders the woods and forests close to the human soul, there is no doubting our affinity with the woods and the forests. Thus, why woods and forests have long figured prominently in our lore and literature. Thus, why we today have a vast wealth of inspirational sayings and quotes on woods and forests.

If you love the groves and greenwoods, then you will also love this collection of as many as 199 quotes on woods and forests. If you are looking for a quote or two, whether to express your love for trees and forested lands, or emphasize their importance and the need to protect and conserve them now more than ever, then you will surely find something to suit you from this varied selection.

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“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.” – John Muir

“A forest bird never wants a cage.” – Henrik Ibsen

“A forest is a living thing like a human body…each part dependent on all the other parts.” – Louis L’Amour

“A forest of these trees is a spectacle too much for one man to see.” – David Douglas

“A forest shares a history which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.” – Anne Michaels

“A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great or beautiful cathedral.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“A house you can rebuild; a bridge you can restring; a washed-out road you can fill in. But there is nothing you can do about a tree but mourn.” – Louise Dickinson Rich

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“A rose started off a bud, a bird started off an egg, and a forest started off a seed.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“A seed stores a forest; a mind stores a universe.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“A tree is beautiful, but what’s more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples’ character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe…What a terrible future!” – Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.” – George Nakashima

“A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.” – Hal Borland

“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.” – Aldo Leopold

“All forests are one… They are all echoes of the first forest that gave birth to Mystery when the world began.” – Charles de Lint

“Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests… No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body.” – Charles Darwin

“An autumn forest is such a place that once entered you never look for the exit!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” – John Muir

“And we will meet in the woods far far away from this hustle and bustle… and share love and sunshine.” – Avijeet Das

“Anywhere which is in a forest, that’s my zen place.” – Raveena Tandon

“As a spiritual person, nature for me has always been a healing place. Going back all the way to my childhood on the farm, the fields and forests were places of adventure and self-discovery. Animals were companions and friends, and the world moved at a slower, more rational pace than the bustling cities where I’d resided my adult life.” – David Mixner

“As the woods are the same, the trees standing in their places, the rocks and the earth… they are always different too, as lights and shadows and seasons and moods pass through them.” – Emily Carr

“At first glance, northern hardwood and hemlock forests aren’t very sexy – they are the accountants of the forest world, stable and consistent.” – Peter Quinby

“Being in the woods at night is a beautiful thing.” – Hugo Weaving

“Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.” – Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.” – John Muir

“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.” – Alan Watts

“But more impressive than the facts and figures as to height, width, age, etc., are the entrancing beauty and tranquility that pervade the forest, the feelings of peace, awe and reverence that it inspires.” – George MacDonald

“But when on shore, and wandering in the sublime forests, surrounded by views more gorgeous than even Claude ever imagined, I enjoy a delight which none but those who have experienced it can understand.” – Charles Darwin

“By reading Huckleberry Finn I felt I was able to justify my act of going into the mountain forest at night and sleeping among the trees with a sense of security which I could never find indoors.” – Kenzaburo Oe

“Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans have been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest, living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.” – Jane Goodall

“Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill.” – John Muir

“Cutting down a forest for timber adds to GDP, but what we don’t record is the loss to our wealth in terms of natural resources.” – Winnie Byanyima

“Each generation takes the earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.” – Julius Sterling Morton

“Each summer’s night the woods abound with sounds. And I always thought how wonderful it was that nature sings even when it’s asleep.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” – John Lubbock

“Endangered forests are being slaughtered for toilet paper.” – Daphne Zuniga

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther

“Every forest branch moves differently in the breeze, but as they sway they connect at the roots.” – Rumi

“Every time I have some moment on a seashore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest, I think this is why the environment has to be preserved.” – Bill Bradley

“Every time we burn a gallon of gas or an acre of rain forest, aren’t we killing the future to preserve the present?” – Chuck Palahniuk

“For an artist or an entertainer, it’s the ultimate when you can go to the forest when you’re done your work and escape.” – Dolores O’Riordan

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” – Martin Luther

“For me, forests are like churches, hallowed places. There’s a stillness about them, a sort of reverence.” – Sabrina Elkins

“For you, it’s all about money, money, money. But what about the forests I say? Some of those trees have been there for hundreds of years. What right have you to destroy that?” – Emily Arden

“Forest is a dream where you may find yourself and dream is a forest where you may lose yourself!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.” – Orison Swett Marden

“Forests are the world’s air-conditioning system – the lungs of the planet – and we are on the verge of switching it off.” – Prince Charles

“Forests should not be walked on, they should be walked under and through.” – Courtney M. Privett

“Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.” – François-René de Chateaubriand

“Glorious are the woods in their latest gold and crimson,
Yet our full-leaved willows are in their freshest green.
Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing
With the growths of summer, I never yet have seen.” – William Cullen Bryant

“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” – John Muir

“Going for a leisurely walk in the forest feels like getting a big ol’ hug from Mother Nature.” – Jamie Erwine

“Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally.” – John Muir

“He who has no dreams, let him go to a beautiful forest to have many!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“He who plants a tree, plants a hope.” – Lucy Larcom

“Healthy forests and wetlands stand sentry against the dangers of climate change, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away in plants, root systems and soil.” – Frances Beinecke

“Here grew willows and alders, their trunks twisted like giants’ sinews. Around them bark lichen bloomed blue-white in the darkness. It felt like a good place, where there was old magic.” – Duncan Harper

“How do I explain the woods? For to do so using sturdy and manageable terms such as biodiversity or environment or ecosystem might suit a scientific framework. But such terms miss the mystery of life merging in a million different forms that all unify in a glorious tapestry so complete and utterly perfect that not to be stunned is to be dead in spirit. And therefore we might consider the fact that the woods make us alive in spirit when the definitions of men would kill life by enslaving it to definition.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them.” – Carl Sagan

“Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.” – Isaac Asimov

“I’m always astonished by a forest. It makes me realise that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn.” – Gunter Grass

“I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods.” – Wendell Berry

“I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun: If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.” – Mikhail Gorbachev

“I believed then – in a deep, easy way that is impossible for me as an adult – that there was more to this world than meets the eye. Trees had spirits; the wind spoke. If you followed a toad or a raven deep into the heart of the forest, they were sure to lead you to something magical.” – Jennifer McMahon

“I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods.” – Georg Trakl

“I feel a great regard for trees; they represent age and beauty and the miracles of life and growth.” – Louise Dickinson Rich

“I find my soul in forests…” – Kedar dhepe

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.” – Henry David Thoreau

“I grew up in a forest. It’s like a room. It’s protected. Like a cathedral… it is a place between heaven and earth.” – Anselm Kiefer

“I grew up with the smell of the lake and the feeling of the woods.” – Steven Tyler

“I know there is pain when sawmills close and people lose jobs, but we have to make a choice. We need water and we need these forests.” – Wangari Maathai

“I love being in the woods, when I can just walk barefoot in the grass and just sit down and breathe. I love that so much.” – Jessie Reyez

“I love the fact that we are surrounded by this spectacular natural beauty that routinely strikes us dead. Hikers walk off into the woods and are never seen again. And still we tug on our fleece and skip off into the wilderness, not a care in the world.” – Chelsea Cain

“I love the forest. It is the place where you hear yourself better.” – Fahadh Faasil

“I love the outdoors and looking at snakes, squirrels, bugs – just going through the woods and being part of it. You can smell the different trees. And I listen. There’s so much you can learn by listening, by sitting and watching things happen.” – Boo Weekley

“I never see a forest that does not bear a mark or a sign of history.” – Anselm Kiefer

“I sat staring, staring, staring – half lost, learning a new language or rather the same language in a different dialect. So still were the big woods where I sat, sound might not yet have been born.” – Emily Carr

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” – Henry David Thoreau

“I understood at a very early age that in nature, I felt everything I should feel in church but never did. Walking in the woods, I felt in touch with the universe and with the spirit of the universe.” – Alice Walker

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.” – Henry David Thoreau

“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct.” – Peter Benchley

“If the day comes when our descendants can venture with wonder into chestnut forests, we will have gained back more than a perfect tree. We will have gained a new reason for hope.” – Susan Freinkel

“If you cut down a forest, it doesn’t matter how many sawmills you have if there are no more trees.” – Susan George

“If you’ve ever walked a mile into a virgin forest – you know, like a deep forest where trees have been uncut – the energy is totally different from the shopping mall.” – James Redfield

“If you walk into a forest – you hear all kinds of subtle sounds – but underneath there is an all pervasive silence.” – Eckhart Tolle

“If you want to live a peaceful life, either bring the forest to your house or your house to the forest!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.” – Paulo Coelho

“In every forest, on every farm, in every orchard on earth, it’s what’s under the ground that creates what’s above the ground. That’s why placing your attention on the fruits that you have already grown is futile. You cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.” – T. Harv Eker

“In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.” – John James Audobon

“In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.” – John Fowles

“In studying the fate of our forest king, we have thus far considered the action of purely natural causes only; but, unfortunately, man is in the woods, and waste and pure destruction are making rapid headway. If the importance of the forests were even vaguely understood, even from an economic standpoint, their preservation would call forth the most watchful attention of government.” – John Muir

“In the woods we return to reason and faith.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“It’s one thing not to see the forest for the trees, but then to go on to deny the reality of the forest is a more serious matter.” – Paul Weiss

“It is one thing to hear about the forest and the river, but an entirely other experience to go there, to see the environment, and to appreciate the natural riches there first-hand.” – Chris Kilham

“It is the peculiar nature of the forest, that life and death may ever be found within its bounds, in immediate presence of each other; both with ceaseless, noiseless advances, aiming at the mastery; and if the influences of the first be most general, those of the last are the most striking.” – Susan Fenimore Cooper

“It would seem from this fact, that man is naturally a wild animal, and that when taken from the woods, he is never happy in his natural state, ’till he returns to them again.” – Benjamin Rush

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” – Hal Borland

“Land forests are the coral reefs of the ocean of air.” – Steven Magee

“Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you’ll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.” – Sylvia Earle

“Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’s become extinct, and the climate’s ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.” – Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“Most people know that forests are the lungs of our planet, literally playing a critical role in every breath we take. And that they’re also home to incredible animals like the orangutan and elephant, which will go extinct if we keep cutting down their forests.” – Chris Noth

“My dream date would be a hike through the woods followed by an outdoor picnic followed by a glass of wine at sunset. Heaven!” – Nina Agdal

“My engagement with mountains, rivers, and forests has been right from my childhood. I have lived in the jungles by myself; I have floated down rivers. So, I didn’t experience these rivers, mountains, forests as some mythological figures but as thriving, living entities.” – Jaggi Vasudev

“My favorite thing is just walking in the woods. I can do it for days on end without tiring of it.” – Jim Harrison

“My instincts led me to meditate in the woods when I was a kid. I would emerge at sunset and announce to my family that we are all connected beings. I would watch the grass grow and dance with trees and realize that I was a necessary part of the inter-workings of the world.” – Tara Stiles

“Nature soothes us. Nature heals us, and something more, the woods are a place of power. Any woods that are still surviving on this planet, those are powerful areas to have kept themselves free from the encroachment of the industrial societies of our earth.” – Frederick Lenz

“No one who loves the woods stays on the path.” – Millie Florence

“No town can fail of beauty, though its walks were gutters and its houses hovels, if venerable trees make magnificent colonnades along its streets.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. The majestic crowns approaching one another make a glorious canopy, through the feathery arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the needles and gilding the stately columns and the ground into a scene of enchantment.” – John Muir

“Nothing can match the joy of a forest in the morning.” – Millie Florence

“Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn’t already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.” – Thomas Merton

“Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.” – George Washington Carver

“Old-growth forests met no needs. They simply were, in a way that bore no questions about purpose or value. They could not be created by men. They could not even be understood by men. They had too many parts that were interconnected in too many ways. Change one part and everything else would change, but in ways that were unpredictable and often inexplicable. This unpredictability removed such forests from the realm of human perspectives and values. The forest did not need to justify or explain itself. It existed outside of instrumental human considerations.” – Steve Olson

“Once upon a time, forests were repositories of magic for the human race.” – John Burnside

“Only with a leaf can I talk of the forest.” – Visar Zhiti

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.” – Raveena Tandon

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” – George Washington Carver

“Sadly, it’s much easier to create a desert than a forest.” – James Lovelock

“Save the elephants, and then you save the forest and then you save yourself.” – Mark Shand

“Seeds, not doubting their potential, rise and become forests.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence…” – Wallace Stegner

“Take a trip to the forest and experience the greatness of getting on your knees and picking your own food and going home… and eating it.” – Rene Redzepi

“The battle we have fought, and are still fighting, for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong.” – John Muir

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The cultivation of trees is the cultivation of the good, the beautiful and the ennobling in man.” – Julius Sterling Morton

“The cutting of primeval forest and other disasters, fueled by the demands of growing human populations, are the overriding threat to biological diversity everywhere.” – E. O. Wilson

“The death of the forest is the end of our life.” – Dorothy Stang

“The forest has always been a place, in fairy tales and in Shakespeare, where you go and discover who you are. You get stripped of everything you thought you were, some type of ordeal takes place, and you come out stronger.” – David Farr

“The forest has shrunk
And fear has expanded,
The forests have dwindled,
There are less animals now,
less courage and less lightning,
less beauty
and the moon lies bare,
deflowered by force and
then abandoned.” – Visar Zhiti

“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, offering shade even to the axe-man who destroys it.” – Gautama Buddha

“The forest is a pillow for a wanderer.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“The forest is a quiet place if only the best birds sing.” – Kay Johnson

“The forest is my loyal friend. A Delphic shrine to me.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The forest is not a resource for us, it is life itself. It is the only place for us to live.” – Evaristo Nugkuag Ikanan

“The forest is not merely an expression or representation of sacredness, nor a place to invoke the sacred; the forest is sacredness itself. Nature is not merely created by God, nature is God. Whoever moves within the forest can partake directly of sacredness, experience sacredness with his entire body, breath sacredness and contain it within himself, drink the sacred water as a living communion, bury his feet in sacredness, open his eyes and witness the burning beauty of sacredness.” – Richard Nelson

“The forest was not dark, because darkness has nothing to do with the forest – the forest is made of life, of light – but the trees moved with wind and subtle creatures.” – Lauren Groff

“The forests are dying, the rivers are dying, and we are called to act. To return Earth to harmony is to restore the harmonious principles within ourselves and to act as responsible caretakers – to save the forests and the waters for future generations.” – Dhyani Ywahoo

“The forests are the flags of nature. They appeal to all and awaken inspiring universal feelings. Enter the forest and the boundaries of nations are forgotten. It may be that some time an immortal pine will be the flag of a united peaceful world.” – Enos A. Mills

“The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The groves were God’s first temples.” – William Cullen Bryant

“The happiest days of my youth were when my brother and I would run through the woods and feel quite safe.” – Rachel Weisz

“The improvement of forest trees is the work of centuries. So much more the reason for beginning now.” – George Perkins Marsh

“The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage; they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human.” – Victor Hugo

“The places of quiet are going away, the churches, the woods, the libraries. And it is only in silence we can hear the voice inside of us which gives us true peace.” – James Rozoff

“The planet’s forests are essential for life.” – Paul Polman

“The practical importance of the preservation of our forests is augmented by their relations to climate, soil and streams.” – John Muir

“The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” – Napoleon Hill

“The time I spent in the jungles held unalloyed happiness for me, and that happiness I would now gladly share. My happiness, I believe, resulted from the fact that all wildlife is happy in its natural surroundings. In nature there is no sorrow, and no repining. A bird from a flock, or an animal from a herd, is taken by hawk or carnivorous beast and those that are left rejoice that their time had not come today, and have no thought of tomorrow.” – Jim Corbett

“The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. ” – William Blake

“The tropical rain forests are a telling example. Once cut down, they rarely recover. Rainfall drops, deserts spread, the climate warms.” – James Lovelock

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” – Nelson Henderson

“The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard.” – Barbara Tuchman

“The woods always look different at night…as if the daytime trees and flowers and stones had gone to bed and sent slightly more ominous versions of themselves to take their places.” – Suzanne Collins

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost

“The woods are never solitary – they are full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But the sea is a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow, which shuts it up into itself for all eternity.” – L. M. Montgomery

“The woods invite me into themselves so that I might be drawn out of myself. And if I have never engaged in such an exchange, I will find myself a man so full of myself that I am nothing but myself. And that is a terribly small thing to be.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

“The woods seemed all answer and healing and more than enough to live for.” – Josephine Winslow Johnson

“The woods were a boon; all too often, the forest offered danger and mystery. Yet it could be liberating. If you entered that wild place on its own terms, you might be accorded wisdom.” – John Burnside

“The world’s a forest, in which all lose their way; though by a different path each goes astray.” – George Villiers

“The world’s forests are a shared stolen treasure that we must put back for our children’s future.” – Desmond Tutu

“There are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet.” – Peter Wohlleben

“There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.” – Washington Irving

“There’s nothing more frightening – and exciting – than getting lost in a forest. There is a journey towards the light, and you’ve got to go through the dark to get to the light. That’s what the forest is all about.” – David Farr

“There is nothing so beautiful as the free forest. To catch a fish when you are hungry, cut the boughs of a tree, make a fire to roast it, and eat it in the open air, is the greatest of all luxuries. I would not stay a week pent up in cities if it were not for my passion for art.” – Edmonia Lewis

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture in 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.” – Lord Byron

“They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers.” – James G. Watt

“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“To describe the overwhelming life of a tropical forest just in terms of inert biochemistry and DNA didn’t seem to give a very full picture of the world.” – Rupert Sheldrake

“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.” – Thomas Hardy

“Trees’re always a relief, after people.” – David Mitchell

“Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Trees can reduce the heat of a summer’s day, quiet a highway’s noise, feed the hungry, provide shelter from the wind and warmth in the winter. You see, the forests are the sanctuaries not only of wildlife, but also of the human spirit. And every tree is a compact between generations.” – George H. W. Bush

“Trees we plant today are forests we enjoy tomorrow.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

“Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?” – Alice Walker

“We can halt the destruction of the world’s rainforests – and even restore parts of them – in order to ensure that the forests do what they are so good at – in other words, storing carbon naturally.” – Prince Charles

“We’ve all got to come together, and we’ve got to protect what’s left of our ancient forests on this planet.” – Stella McCartney

“We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

“We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.” – Qwatsinas

“We need healthy forests if we want to protect our climate. As the climate changes, forests become more vulnerable to insect outbreaks, droughts and wildfires. Simultaneously, when our forests are destroyed, their carbon is released back into the atmosphere, further impacting climate change. It’s a horrifying one-two punch.” – Chris Noth

“We used to go in the woods by ourselves, and you can’t help noticing the world then, especially animals. People used to know a lot about the natural world, especially in the country.” – Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

“What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in, whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain future that is unfolding.” – Jim Robbins

“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.” – Chris Maser

“What will the axemen do, when they have cut their way from sea to sea?” – James Fenimore Cooper

“When humanity wins its battle against the forests, this victory will be humanity’s greatest defeat!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.” – Thomas Carlyle

“When we lose these woods, we lose our soul. Not simply as individuals, but as a people.” – Kevin Walker

“When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, and the awful gloom of this doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?” – Seneca

“When you go into a forest, anything can happen.” – David Farr

“Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.” – Robert W. Service

“You are welcome to your intellectual pastimes and books and art and newspapers; welcome, too, to your bars and your whisky that only makes me ill. Here am I in the forest, quite content.” – Knut Hamsun

“You can be in terrible shape, and if you take a three-hour walk through the forest and along the river, you’re simply not the same as when you started out.” – Jim Harrison