At a time when our planet faces a deepening crisis, it has never been more important to celebrate it and raise awareness about its care. To honor these sentiments this Earth Day, we’ve gathered a collection of powerful quotes to inspire your learners to form a deeper connection with nature. Capturing the beauty of Earth and the urgent need to do more for it, these words will motivate them to take action to save our planet!
1. “The Earth is what we all have in common.” – Wendell Berry
2. “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle
3. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein
4. “The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.” – Lady Bird Johnson
5. “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau
6. “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
7. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
8. “The greatest danger to our future is apathy.” – Jane Goodall
9. “He that plants trees loves others beside himself.” – Thomas Fuller
10. “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” – Ernest Hemingway
11. “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.” – Albert Schweitzer
12. “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” – Native American Proverb
13. “The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.” – Chief Seattle
14. Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect.” – Chief Seattle
15. “The world is not in your books and maps, it’s out there.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
16. “Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.” – Jimmy Carter
17. “Time spent amongst trees is never wasted time.” – Katrina Mayer
18. “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” – Henry David Thoreau
19. “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'” – Robin Williams
20. “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir
21. “We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.” – Henry David Thoreau
22. “The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order.” – Henry Miller
23. “There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” – Wendell Berry
24. “How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” – John Burroughs
25. “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
26. “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” – Henry David Thoreau
27. “Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” – Henry David Thoreau
28. “Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth
29. “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God.” – Anne Frank
30. “Wildness is the preservation of the World.” – Henry David Thoreau
31. “If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
32. “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir
33. “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” – Khalil Gibran
34. “Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
35. “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
36. “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” – John Burroughs
37. “The earth has its music for those who will listen.” – George Santayana
38. “We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Walt Kelly
39. “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson
40. “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” – Gary Snyder
41. “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.” – Robert Green Ingersoll
42. “The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago… had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” – Havelock Ellis
43. “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.” – Aldo Leopold
44. “The butterfly is a flying flower, The flower a tethered butterfly.” – Ponce Denis Ecouchard Lebrun
45. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
46. “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
47. “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
48. “For 200 years we’ve been conquering Nature. Now we’re beating it to death.” – Tom McMillan
49. “What a country chooses to save is what a country chooses to say about itself.” – Mollie Beattie
50. “I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.” – Aldo Leopold
51. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” – William Shakespeare
52. “Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
53. “The good man is the friend of all living things.” – Mahatma Gandhi
54. “A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.” – John James Audubon
55. “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – Rachel Carson
56. “A living planet is a much more complex metaphor for deity than just a bigger father with a bigger fist.” – Carl Sagan
57. “An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.” – David Attenborough
58. “There’s no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.” – Annie Leonard
59. “Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it.” – Vaclav Havel
60. “The future will either be green or not at all.” – Bob Brown
61. “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.” – Ralph Nader
62. “We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.” – Margaret Mead
63. “To halt the decline of an ecosystem, it is necessary to think like an ecosystem.” – Douglas P. Wheeler
64. “We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.” – David Suzuki
65. “By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.” – Aeschylus
66. “The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.” – Albert Einstein
67. “Nature does nothing uselessly.” – Aristotle
68. “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.” – Ansel Adams
69. “The environment is everything that isn’t me.” – Albert Einstein
70. “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.” – Maurice Maeterlinck
71. “Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” – Albert Einstein
72. “You can’t be an environmentalist and eat factory farmed animals.” – Paul Hawken
73. “The natural environment sustains the life of all beings universally.” – Dalai Lama
74. “There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.” – Robert Orben
75. “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
76. “When the soil disappears, the soul disappears.” – Ymber Delecto
77. “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” – Wendell Berry
78. “Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.” – Gifford Pinchot
79. “The poetry of the earth is never dead.” – John Keats