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Environmental conservation
Assignment on sustainability
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A deep, unending, and unfulfilled thirst for adventure and exploration arose when I read this quote from Edward Abbey. Untamed and wild, nature possesses exquisite beauty and wonders that even the wildest imagination could not conceive. Abbey’s quote captures this untamed beauty almost perfectly in the form of words. While nature contains such wonders, it is not always willing to immediately yield its secrets. Nevertheless, persistence and effort are key when it comes to discovering the magnificence of Mother Nature, as the hardest trails are sure to bear the sweetest rewards.
Personally, this quote inspires me to live my life, as opposed to just getting through the day with as minimal effort as possible. Edward’s quote reminds me that I should
In the “Impoverishment of Sightseeing”, John Daniel seeks to inspire readers to experience nature beyond observation. Daniel clearly differentiates between the minute appreciation received from sightseeing, and the aweing admiration you can feel if you engulf yourself in nature. Through sharing his personal experiences and scholarly analysis, Daniel demonstrates the importance of being vulnerable to the environment that is necessary for comprehensively understand nature. He argues by allowing ourselves to be naked to nature, one can understand how the natural World has the power to limit our existence.
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, "I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right, and that is good,” and a character from "Lord of the Flies" applies to this, and his name is Ralph. He symbolizes civilization within William Golding's allegory. First off, he brought up the idea of designated chief to lead the survivors, rather than anarchy. Also, being elected by most of the survivors and they trusted him to help them. Concerning the idea of being rescued, he constantly enforces the idea of the fire. The idea is for someone not on the island see the boat and to leave the island. Due to that, Ralph places a rule of having a fire constantly on. This rule, along with the many others
"Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or morning piece." (Emerson, 388) The cave gave them the sense of relaxation and freedom to discover themselves. Some people go out into nature to disconnect and clear their mind others go to seek answers whatever it may be but it does change an individual. "The surface of the earth is soft and impressionable by the feet of men; and so with the path the mind travels." (Thoreau, 407). Some might see it as if one were running away from problems but it is more as if one were to come back to view it with clear refreshed eyes.
Richards, Edward Hersey. "Picture Quotes About Inspirational - QuotePixel." Picture Quotes About Inspirational - QuotePixel. Quote Pixel, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014. .
In his world-famous thought-provoking novel, Walden, Henry David Thoreau presents his readers with a simple, inspirational guide for living. Written beside the beautiful Walden pond and completely surrounded by an unencumbered natural world, Thoreau writes about his own relationship with the beauty that surrounds him. His book provides an outlet for everyone to learn from his lessons learned in nature, whether they be city-dwellers or his own neighbors. One of Thoreau's most prominent natural lessons running throughout his novel is that of his deeply rooted sense of himself and his connection with the natural world. He relates nature and his experiences within it to his personal self rather than society as a whole. Many times in the novel, Thoreau urges his readers to break away from their societal expectations and to discover for themselves a path that is not necessarily the one most trodden. He explains that everyone should "be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought (341)." Walden inspires its readers to break out of the mold of tradition, away from outwardly imposed expectations, and out of the loyalty to society over loyalty to oneself in order to find truth and self in nature.
We have spent a good deal of this semester concentrating on the sublime. We have asked what (in nature) is sublime, how is the sublime described and how do different writers interpret the sublime. A sublime experience is recognizable by key words such as 'awe', 'astonishment' and 'terror', feelings of insignificance, fractured syntax and the general inability to describe what is being experienced. Perception and interpretation of the sublime are directly linked to personal circumstance and suffering, to spiritual beliefs and even expectation (consider Wordsworth's disappointment at Mont Blanc). It has become evident that there is a transition space between what a traveler experiences and what he writes; a place wherein words often fail but the experience is intensified, even understood by the traveler. This space, as I have understood it, is the imagination. In his quest for spiritual identity Thomas Merton offers the above quotation to illustrate what he calls 'interpenetration' between the self and the world. As travel writers engage nature through their imagination, Merton's description of the 'inner ground' is an appropriate one for the Romantic conception of the imagination. ...
According to author Annie Dillard, throughout Teaching a Stone to Talk, nature isn’t only aesthetically-pleasing, but serves a greater purpose. The elements of nature do strike her, often, with beauty, but to her and for her, nature isn’t just something that ‘we’ must rely on for beauty, but is something where we can find answers to our most complex debacles, ones that we -- as a society and as individuals -- often struggle with. It’s evident that nature is of great, paramount importance to her, and isn’t something she just sees physical beauty in, but is something she finds answers and clarity in, and believes that ‘we’ can find that in nature, as well. We can understand life, through nature.
Henry Thoreau’s relationship to nature underwent many changes throughout the course of his life. He especially made a much discussed shift from Emersonian Transcendentalism, to scientific data collection. Thoreau followed varied paths on his quest to understand the world in which he lived. As he grew older he managed to amass a huge collection of information about the plants and animals in the Concord region of Massachusetts. But his greatest contribution to the world is not his scientific research; rather it is the example of respect and thoughtfulness with which he approached nature. This individualistic and spiritual approach to nature differentiates him from modern day ecologists. Thoreau’s quest was to understand better and appreciate nature as a whole and the greater role it plays in connection to all things. Not only did he succeed in doing so, but he has also inspired his readers to question, observe, and appreciate the natural world. His thoughts on nature are recognized today as precursors of the conservation movement and also inspiration for the creation of national parks. Thoreau’s approach to nature varied throughout his life, but his purpose did not. His myriad approach to his work is exactly what brought about his success, and sets him apart from other nature writers and ecologists who share his quest.
He goes to say “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty” (Krakaeur 57). McCandless is saying that a person will never understand the true beauty of nature until he gets out and experiences it himself without any distractions. Thoreau also depends upon nature. Thoreau says “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Elements of Literature: Essentials of American Literature). McCandless and Thoreau are both saying that nature is essential to life and the experiences that come with
At first, the idea of escaping into nature was cumbersome. Meandering aimlessly concerned me. My mind was stained with negative thoughts of solitude and being alone first felt demoralizing, but slowly my earlier assumption dissipated, fully disappearing from the subconscious once I broke the boundary and stepped into nature. Emerson notes, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair” (8). I too believe what Emerson says. In my own rush to “fit in” I dismissed my own morals accepted others as if they were my own. I put my energy into modeling myself according to the contemplation of others, all the while ignoring principles
scientific understanding detracts from an esthetic appreciation of nature: "The vastness of the heavens stretches my
Henry David Thoreau implies that simplicity and nature are valuable to a person’s happiness in “Why I Went to the Woods”. An overall theme used in his work was the connection to one’s spiritual self. Thoreau believed that by being secluded in nature and away from society would allow one to connect with their inner self. Wordsworth and Thoreau imply the same idea that the simple pleasures in life are easily overlooked or ignored. Seeing the true beauty of nature allows oneself to rejuvenate their mentality and desires. When one allows, they can become closer to their spiritual selves. One of William Wordsworth’s popular pieces, “Tintern Abbey”, discusses the beauty and tranquility of nature. Wordsworth believed that when people
Through the poems of Blake and Wordsworth, the meaning of nature expands far beyond the earlier century's definition of nature. "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." The passion and imagination portrayal manifest this period unquestionably, as the Romantic Era. Nature is a place of solace where the imagination is free to roam. Wordsworth contrasts the material world to the innocent beauty of nature that is easily forgotten, or overlooked due to our insensitivities by our complete devotion to the trivial world. “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath passed away a glory from the earth.