The fire advanced along the log
Of the tree we felled,
Which bloomed and bore striped apples by the peck
Till its last hour of bearing knelled ... Thomas Hardy, Logs on the Hearth
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. John Muir
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
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
Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far! John Muir
The majestic Sequoia is the king of the conifers, the noblest of all the noble race. John Muir
My fire was in all its glory about midnight, and, having made a bark shed to shelter me from the rain and partially dry my clothing, I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers. John Muir
Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish. John Muir, The National Parks and Forest Reservations, Sierra Club Bulletin Volume 1, Number 7 (January 1896)
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide. A E Housman, A Shropshire Lad
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow. ibid.
Give me a land of boughs in leaf
A land of trees that stand;
Where trees are fallen there is grief;
I love no leafless land. A E Housman
Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I’ll protect it now. George Pope Morris, 1830
How lovely trees are. We grew up in and around them. We have a natural affinity for trees. Trees photosynthesise; they harvest sunlight. They compete for the sun’s favours. Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue, PBS 1980
This oak tree and me – we’re made of the same stuff. ibid.
After we discovered fire we began to incinerate forests intentionally to clear the land for a process called Slash and Burn agriculture. And today forests and grasslands are being destroyed frivolously, carelessly, by humans who are heedless of the beauty of our cousins the trees. And ignorant of the possible climatic catastrophes that large-scale burning of forests may begin. Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Heaven and Hell
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. Willa Cather, American novelist
There is a tree, the tree of Transmigration, the Asvattha tree everlasting. Its roots are above in the Highest, and its branches are here below. Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Dialogue on the Soul 15:1
We have three times more trees today than we did in 1920. Penn & Teller Bullshit! s2e5: Recycling, Showtime 2004
He that plants trees loves others beside himself. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia
Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are one beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn. Rudyard Kipling, A Tree Song, 1906
But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree,
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry. William Shakespeare, As You Like It II iii 63
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And tune his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
No enemy here shall he see,
But winter and rough weather. ibid. II v 1
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. William Shakespeare, Hamlet IV xii 167
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly bread. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 12
She leads me forth, and poisons autumn eves
With hellish scenes; shows me an aged tree
Bending and groaning in its agony
Before a wind tormenting it for leaves. Wilfred Owen, Supposed Confessions of a Secondrate Sensitive Mind in Dejection
Recycling does not save trees. Daniel Benjamin
As the poet says, ‘Only God can make a tree’. Probably because it’s hard to figure out how to get the bark on. Groucho Marx
Camilla Bowitz from Worcester, England, had a special fruit tree growing in her back garden – it bore both apples and plums! Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! 2006
Trees Dying In the West At Record Rate: Trees are dying faster than ever in the old-growth forests of California and the mountains of the West. David Perlman, Chronicle science editor, online article 23rd January 2009
The oldest living individual tree is the ancient bristle cone pine (Pinus longaeva) called Methuselah which is 4,733 years old. It was found by Dr Edmund Schulman (USA) in the White Mountains California USA and dated in 1957. Guinness World Records 1985 (50th edition)
And then there crept
A little noiseless noise among the leaves,
Born of the very sigh that silence heaves. John Keats, I Stood Tip-Toe Upon a Little Hill
A grove of giant redwood or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral. Theodore Roosevelt
He says it [deforestation around Berghof] must be done because of security. But I hate to see even one tree felled. Adolf Hitler
Sod the trees. Sod the air. I wanne go back to Govan. Rab C Nesbitt s4e6: Further, BBC 1994
For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Hermann Hesse, Bäume Betrachtungen und Gedichte
I never see that prettiest thing –
A cherry bough gone white with Spring –
But what I think, How gay ’twould be
To hang me from a flowering tree. Dorothy Parker, Not so Deep as a Well
A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things. George R R Martin, A Game of Thrones
We have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from trees, that vigorous and pacific tribe which without stint produces strengthening essences for us, soothing balms, and in whose gracious company we spend so many cool, silent, and intimate hours. Marcel Proust
After a while I moved farther up the hill, where I could hear birds singing near and far in the silence of the trees. The presence of the trees was very strong ... The big oaks stood so many, so massive in their other life, in their deep, rooted silence: the awe of them came on me, the religion. Ursula K Le Guin, Lavinia