As the 2021 theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is nature, here are 21 inspiring quotes about the environment.
Taking place from 10 – 16 May, the annual event gives the UK an opportunity to focus on good mental health. Over 21 years, Mental Health Awareness Week has grown to be one of the most recognised awareness campaigns in the world.
According to Mental Health Foundation, ‘Nature is our great untapped resource for a mentally healthy future.’ Even small ventures into the natural world can reduce feelings of isolation and decrease stress. Therefore, the charity is encouraging people to connect with nature in new ways and advocate for a greener future.
From musings about perfectly imperfect trees to the power of a single drop in the ocean, hope these quotes inspire you to connect more with our ‘pale blue dot.’
The Art of Nature
1. ‘Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.’
– John Ruskin
2. ‘To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art.’
– J. M. W. Turner
3. ‘Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.’
– Kahlil Gibran
4. ‘I paint flowers so they will not die.’
– Frida Kahlo
5. ‘My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.’
– Claude Monet
The Beauty of Nature
6. ‘In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.’
– Alice Walker
7. ‘Not just beautiful, though – the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.’
– Haruki Murakami
8. ‘At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.’
– Toni Morrison
The Teachings of Nature
9. ‘Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.’
– Frank Lloyd Wright
10. ‘The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.’
– John Muir
11. ‘I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.’
– Emily Brontë
12. ‘My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?’
– David Mitchell
13. ‘A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.’
– Chinese proverb
Mindfulness in Nature
14. ‘There is something to be wondered at in all of Nature.’
– Aristotle
15. ‘I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.’
– William Shakespeare
16. ‘The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.’
– Rabindranath Tagore
17. ‘The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.’
– Thich Nhat Hanh
18. ‘Some people could look at a mud-puddle and see an ocean with ships.’
– Zora Neale Hurston
Forecasting With Nature
19. ‘With a palm full of stars I throw them like dice / Repeatedly I shake them like dice / And throw them on the table / Repeatedly Repeatedly / Until the desired constellation appears / And I ask myself: How am I going to make it right?’
– Björk
20. ‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’
– Percy Shelley
21. ‘Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.’
– Carl Sagan
Further Reading
Hope you enjoyed these nature quotes relating to mental health and wellbeing.
Want more inspiration? In 2019 I created the Mindful Matters document for Junior Chamber International UK. The digital booklet is filled with members’ suggestions for improving wellbeing – including writing activities, relaxing playlists and ways to challenge automatic negative thoughts.
You can read Mindful Matters here.