Animals and Nature

Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals.

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone, and why a bird sustains itself in the air.

Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea

Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.

Nature alone is the master of true genius.

A day will come in which men will look upon an animal’s murder the same way they look today upon a man’s murder.

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.

Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

The eye, the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding can most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of Nature; and the ear is second.

Those who are inspired by a model other than Nature, labor in vain.

If you are on the side whence the wind is blowing you will see the trees looking much lighter than you would see them on the other sides; and this is due to the fact that the wind turns up the reverse side of the leaves which in all trees is much whiter than the upper side.

The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.

If you do not rest on the good foundation of nature, you will labour with little honor and less profit.

Experiment is the sole interpreter of the artifices of Nature.

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.

Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.

My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.

Nature never breaks her own laws.

The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself.

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.

Water is the driving force of all nature.