What was the wood, what the tree out of which heaven and earth were fashioned?                                        
Rig Veda  10.31.7

For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks                                                                                                                               F
riedrich Nietzsche 1844 – 1900          German philosopher

Just as a tree, though cut down, can grow again and again if its roots are undamaged and strong, in the same way if the roots of craving are not wholly uprooted sorrows will come again and again
The Dhammapada Buddhist scripture traditionally ascribed to the Buddha himself

He whose wisdom exceeds his works, to what may he be likened? To a tree whose branches are numerous but whose roots are few. The wind comes along and uproots it and sweeps it down
The Talmud       a central text of mainstream Judaism

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves
Amelia Earhart      1897 – 1937        American aviator and author

Spirituality automatically leads to humility.   When a flower develops
into a fruit, the petals drop off on its own.   When one becomes spiritual,
the ego vanishes gradually on its own.   A tree laden with fruits always
bends low.   Humility is a sign of greatness.
Sri Ramakrishna       1836 – 1886       Mystic of 19^th century India

A tree bends when its fruits have ripened; a fresh water cloud hangs low; similarily, a gentleman becomes all the more humble in prosperity.
Shakuntala Act IV, 12  as told in the Mahabharata

When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself.  You connect with it at a very deep level.  You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness.
Eckhart Tolle  1948 –   German born teacher on spirituality

Imagine a dense forest full of tigers and you in a strong steel cage. Knowing that you are well protected by the cage, you watch the tigers fearlessly. Next, you find the tigers in the cage and yourself roaming about in the jungle. Last, the cage disappears and you ride the tigers!
Sri  Nisargadatta Maharaj  1897 – 1981  Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher

God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!”
Joseph Campbell 1904 – 1987     American mythologist, writer and lecturer

“and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
Shakespeare  1564-1616  English poet and playwright

The trees are God’s greatest alphapet: With them He writes in shining green, across the world his thoughts serene.
Leonora Speyer    1872 – 1956    American poet and violinist                       

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather     1873-1947      American author who grew up in Nebraska

As a tree, even though it has been cut down, is firm so long as its root is safe, and grows again, thus, unless the feeders of thirst are destroyed, the pain (of life) will return again and again
Friedrich Max Muller      1823 – 1900       German philologist and orientalist

The tree of liberty should be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants
Thomas Jefferson   1743-1826   3rd President of the United States

A tree root won’t get into your sewer line unless there’s something already wrong with your sewer line. I know most people don’t want to hear that, but it’s true
Thomas Hylton      Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Who leaves the pine tree, leaves his friend, unnerves his strength, invites his end.
Ralph Waldo Emerson “Woodnotes”  1803-1882  American essayist, philosopher and poet

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?  We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
Jack Handey   1949 –      American humorist

Astonishment is the root of philosophy
Paul Tillich    1886 – 1965    German-American theologian

A stricken tree, a living thing, so beautiful, so dignified, so admirable in its potential longevity, is, next to man, perhaps the most touching of wounded objects
Edna Ferber     1885-1968      American novelist and playwright

Tree are your best antiques                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Alexander Smith  1830-1867   Scottish poet

A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a ree
Spike Milligan     1918 – 2002      Anglo-Irish comedian/poet

A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods Robert Henri    1865 -1929      American painter and teacher

A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?
Ronald Reagan   1911 – 2004          40^th President of the United States

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     1890-1978         American author

 All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man… the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports
Chief Seattle    1786 – 1866    Leader of the Suquamish

As the poet said, ‘Only God can make a tree,’ probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on
Woody Allen    1935 –              American film director

And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father
Black Elk            1863-1950     Lakota medicine man

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing
Abraham Lincoln          1809-1865      16^th President of the United States

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree
Rabindranath Tagore      1861 – 1941    Bengali polymath

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does
George Bernard Shaw       1856 – 1950      Irish playwright

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     1483 – 1546    German  priest and theology professor

Friendship is a sheltering tree
Samuel Taylor Coleridge     1772 – 1834   English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher

 General principles… are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves
Samuel Taylor Coleridge     1772 – 1834        English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree
Roy L. Smith     wrote a series of bible studies in 1945

I didn’t want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature
Wynn Bullock     1902 – 1975    American photographer

I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap
Rodney Dangerfield     1921-2004   American comedian and actor

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do
John Muir       1838 – 1914         Scottish born American naturalist

I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree
Georgia O’Keefe       1887- 1986     American artist

 I said to the almond tree, “Friend, speak to me of God,” and the almond tree blossomed
Nikos Kazantzakis    1883 – 1957     Greek writer and philosopher of the 20th century

I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all
Ogden Nash    1902 – 1971    American poet known for his light verse

I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around when the fruit falls to pick it up
Mary Cassatt        1844 – 1926      American painter and printmaker

I think the tree is an element of regeneration which in itself is a concept of time
Joseph Beuys     1921 – 1986     German performance artist  and sculptor

If a tree dies, plant another in its place
Carolus Linnaeus     1707 – 1778    Swedish botanist

If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice it’s knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully
Matthew Fox    1940  –        American Episcopal  Priest and theologian

In the perception of a tree we can distinguish the act of experiencing, or perceiving, from the thing experienced, or perceived
Samuel Alexander    1859 – 1938     Australian born British philosopher

Just touching that old tree was truly moving to me because when you touch these trees, you have such a sense of the passage of time, of history. It’s like you’re touching the essence, the very substance of life.
Kim Novak    1933 –          American actress

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit
Kahlil Gibran     1883 – 1931    Lebanese American artist, poet and writer

Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground
Pope Paul VI     1897-1978     Pope Roman Catholic Church

Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms
Mark Twain    1835 – 1910    American author and humorist

My family would be supportive if I said I wanted to be a Martian, wear only banana skins, make love to ashtrays, and eat tree bark
Casey Affleck    1975 –               American actor

My feet are like gnarled old tree branches
Dennis Rodman   1961 –     NBA professional basketball player

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf
Albert Schweitzer    1875 – 1965      German French theologian philosopher and physician

Nixon is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump for a speech on conservation
Adlai Stevenson    1900 – 1965    American politician

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo  or willow survives by bending with the wind
Bruce Lee     1940 – 1973     American born Chinese Hong Kong  martial artist and actor

One that would have the fruit must climb the tree
Thomas Fuller    1608 – 1661     English churchman and historian

People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven’t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom
Peter Ustinov    1921 – 2004     British actor and dramatist and filmmaker

 Promises that you make to yourself are often like the Japanese plum tree – they bear no fruit
Francis Marion    1732 – 1795     considered one the fathers of modern gorilla warfare

Sin, guilt, neurosis; they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge
Henry Miller   1891 – 1980       American novelist and painter

Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago
Warren Buffett     1930 –     investor, businessman and philanthropist

Surely man was not created to be an idle fellow; he was not set in this universal orchard to stand still as a tree
Thomas Dekker     1572 – 1632      Elizabethan dramatist

 Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once. It is an insult to creation not to experience it fully. Temperance is wickedness.
Stephen Fry     1957 –              English actor, writer comedian, author and film director

The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less
Arthur Miller     1915 – 2005      American playwright and essayist

The director sent for me for Tarzan. I climbed the tree and walked out on a limb. The next day I was told I was an actor
Johnny Weissmuller    1904 – 1984      American swimmer and actor

The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I’m sure of that
Tom T. Hall       1936 –              American  country balladeer and country singer

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched
Blaise Pascal          1623 – 1662    French mathematician, physicist and philosopher

The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can
Paul Kurtz       1925 –     American professor; considered the father of secular humanism

The only thing that ultimately matters is to eat an ice-cream cone, play a slide trombone, plant a small tree, good God, now you’re free
Ray Manzarek     1939 –          American singer, musician, producer and movie director

The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree
Thomas Campbell        1763 – 1854      Ireland born Presbyterian minister

The possible solutions to a given problem emerge as the leaves of a tree, each node representing a point of deliberation and decision
Niklaus Wirth     1934 –        Swedish computer scientist

 The ripest peach is highest on the tree
James Whitcomb Riley     1849 – 1916    American writer and poet

The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants
Lyn Nofziger      1924 – 2006   American journalist, political consultant and author

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit
Saint Teresa of Avila     1515 – 1582     Spanish mystic and Carmelite nun

The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard
Barbara Tuchman     1912 – 1989     American self-trained historian and author

Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn
Walter Scott     1771 – 1832          Scottish historical novelist and poet

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples
Ralph Waldo Emerson    1803 – 1882   American essayist, philosopher and poet

 We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us
Franz Kafka     1883 – 1924    major fiction writer of the 20th century

We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree
Pablo Casals     1876 – 1973     Spanish Catalan cellist

We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure
William Ellery Channing     1780 – 1842    Unitarian preacher

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?
Logan P. Smith      1865 – 1946     American born essayist and critic

What is the meaning of the togetherness of the perceiving mind, in that peculiar modification of perceiving which makes it perceive not a star but a tree, and the tree itself, is a problem for philosophy
Samuel Alexander      1859 – 1938    Australian born British philosopher

 What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse
Edward Abbey      1927 – 1989      American author and essayist

When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art.
Paul Cezanne     1839 – 1906      French artist and Post-Impressionist painter

Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of them is not my concern
Henry Miller     1891 – 1980      American novelist and painter

When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing – just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?
Ralph Marston     author and publisher of The Daily Motivator

When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all
E. O. Wilson    1929 –      American biologist, and naturalist

Whores don’t live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don’t build nests on a tree that doesn’t bear fruits
Chanakya 350 – 283 BC  advisor and prime minister to the first  Maurya Emperor Chandragupta

You can’t be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet
Hal Borland 1900 – 1978    Nebraska born American author

You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree
John N. Mitchell 1913 – 1988    First United States Attorney General

You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951   Austrian British philosopher in logic and mathematics

You must grow like a tree, not like a mushroom
Janet Erskine Stuart 1857 – 1914     Roman Catholic nun and educationalist

You should issue demerits for tree cutting or the destruction of humus
Donella Meadows 1941 – 2001   American environmental scientist, teacher and writer