Woods Quotes

“I did not want to think about people. I wanted the trees, the scents and colors, the shifting shadows of the wood, which spoke a language I understood. I wished I could simply disappear in it, live like a bird or a fox through the winter, and leave the things I had glimpsed to resolve themselves without me.”
― Patricia A. McKillip, Winter Rose

“Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill.”
― John Muir

“Some of the best advice you will ever hear will come from the forest.”
― Dacha Avelin, Embracing Your Inner Witch: The Maidens Guide to Old World Witchcraft

“You are right; I am not good at moving in society. Be merciful. You do not understand me; I live in the woods by choice--that is my happiness. Here, where I am all alone, it can hurt no one that I am as I am; but when I go among others, I have to use all my will power to be as I should.”
― Knut Hamsun, Pan

“The places of quiet are going away, the churches, the woods, the libraries. And it is only in silence we can hear the voice inside of us which gives us true peace.”
― James Rozoff

“These woods are where silence has come to lick its wounds.”
― Samantha Hunt, Mr. Splitfoot

“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, John Muir Ultimate Collection: Travel Memoirs, Wilderness Essays, Environmental Studies & Letters (Illustrated): Picturesque California, The Treasures ... Redwoods, The Cruise of the Corwin and more

“He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.”
― Robert Frost, North of Boston

“Loss is the shocking catalyst of transformation.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, . . ." ~Lord Byron

So walk with me a little while in the pathless woods and reflect upon the unknown....

...I find myself enchanted by Byron's "pathless woods," and it isn't hard to visualize them: tall, crowding trees, between which you make your way; the scent of earth and foliage and of evergreens. And, looking up, a patch of bright blue sky.... And, unless a leaf fell or a bird sang, there would be silence in the woods except for one's own footsteps which would, I dare say, be hushed also.

In the woods there must be a sense that time has ceased and that for a moment we pause on the edge of some extraordinary discovery, that for the space of a heartbeat we are close to knowledge, on the verge of the solution to all problems, on the threshold of an answer.

Pathless woods, steeped in peace and towering between heaven and earth would, I think, have that answer waiting for us if we were receptive enough to hear it.

...Here in the woods, perhaps we can listen with the heart and with the spirit, and hear the trees speak of growth, and the earth of seeds and silence, and looking up to the sky, hear sunlight singing.”
― Faith Baldwin, Evening Star

“It’s not by accident that people talk of a state of confusion as not being able to see the wood for the trees, or of being out of the woods when some crisis is surmopunted. It is a place of loss, confusion, terror and anger, a place where you can, like Dante, find yourself going down into Hell. But if it’s any comfort, the dark wood isn’t just that. It’s also a place of opportunity and adventure. It is the place in which fortunes can be reversed, hearts mended, hopes reborn.”
― Amanda Craig

“Every time I stare into those eyes of yours, they shine like a mirror with the sharp edges, piercing trough every bit of my reflection. It makes me feel like a child lost in the woods. And all of a sudden I hear a song somewhere and a shiver runs down my spine. A song that I have heard somewhere before. A song that makes all my demons dance forcefully at once.”
― Akshay Vasu

“The early dew-falls that did a pristine coating,
over the woods with its finest transparency,
glazed as like its wet white-glassy earrings that hung on the ears of wild flowers—unlatched my fancy.”
― Nithin Purple, Venus and Crepuscule

“In the aftermath of destruction, a silence settles – the stillness of fresh loss. People’s cheerful chatter is fainter, the blue color of sky dimmer; now that horror is undeniable and feels inescapable, the value of life seems lessened.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“These woods are as empty as you think, he had said. You cannot know what the light might summon from the darkness.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“Och med en annan sak blir jag aldrig färdig: Att draga mig tillbaka och sitta i ensamheten i skogen och ha det gott och mörkt omkring mig. Det är den sista glädjen. Det är det höga, det religiösa i ensamheten och mörkret, som gör att man har behov av dem, det är däremot icke därför man söker sig bort från de andra, att det bara är sig själv man härdar ut med, nej, nej. Men det är det mystiska, att allt brusar fjärran och dock så nära en, man sitter i mitten av en allestädes närvarande. Det är väl Gud. Det är väl en själv som är en del av allt.”
― Knut Hamsun, The Last Joy

“I once took a poo in the woods while hunched over like an animal. It was AWESOME.”
― Drew Barrymore

“Voilà, me dis-je alors. Voilà. Sa prière est meilleure que la mienne. Il l’a faite dans la langue des bois, où ne parlent que les sons menus ou immenses des bêtes. La chasse, la naissance, la crainte, la mort, le désir, le défi… tout ici est privé de mots.”
― Léa Silhol, Sous le Lierre

“There was no one to complain to in the woods, so I did not complain,' Knight said.”
― Michael Finkel, The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

“You will come to the woods and choose your mate.”
― Molly Ringle, The Goblins of Bellwater

“I do not find myself beguiled, let alone enchanted by mortal man or woman with their pretense, show or adornments, yet when I’m alone in the pine-scented cloak of forested mountains, I’m both.

It was nearing sunset in the treasure state with not another soul in sight and despite my own plainness and insignificance, I never felt more grounded or at peace; it’s a tranquility only the curvaceous, imposing landscape of the frontier can provide and I was free of the trepidation within my thoughts as I gratefully and prayerfully walked with God. All was well within me and around me for that blissful yet brief moment in time.”
― Donna Lynn Hope

“I had stripped naked in front of men. Drunk. In morning’s somber brightness I tried to remember why I had done it. Total exposure had seemed like the only way to be seen more clearly, heard, but now it seemed the opposite: a wild act that would define me.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“But the truth was stranger than an aimless road, it always was.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“We are not on our fours, howling in the woods, only because guilt saves us.”
― Nelson Rodrigues

“The sure path to tomorrow was plotted in a manger and paved on a cross. And although this sturdy byway is mine for the taking, I have incessantly chosen lesser paths. And maybe it is time to realize that Christmas is a promise that I can walk through the world and never get lost in the woods.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I had feared this end, wondered where I would go from it, from the moment I first stepped on this footpath in the desert. But I found I was not afraid of reaching it now. I was happy. I hadn't found every answer for where I was going, but I now had all I needed to take these next steps. I knew I would do what I needed to become a writer now.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“After all this time questioning whether I could trust myself, my instinct had proven right — I’d found a path in pathless woods.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“I slipped quickly through darkness. A thousand unseen frogs were ribbetting and croaking, a symphony of primal night. I felt like an animal; I ran through the Marble Mountains to my home in the dark woods. The rocks were abrasive pumice, rough and hard like sandpaper, perilous, and yet I felt euphoric, much safer navigating them without light than I had in Etna, in the daylight. I was safe in this world. This was a place for creatures—I felt I had become more of a creature than a girl. I could handle myself in the wild.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“I couldn’t yet piece together the disconnected clues to understand the origin of these lights. To explain away strange magic, I’d convinced myself there was an unseen road cutting across the boundless desert floor like a scar. I imagined its different possible courses. The mystery intrigued me. I couldn’t think of the real destination this road would have been built to lead to, but I accepted I couldn’t see, and I accepted it was there, strange but – from where I stood – a beautiful vision.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“At first glance, northern hardwood and hemlock forests aren't very sexy - they are the accountants of the forest world, stable and consistent.”
― Peter Quinby, Ontario's Old Growth Forests