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. Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. Conservation is the foresighted utilization, preservation and/or renewal of forests, waters, lands and minerals, for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? 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 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 When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, and the awful gloom of this doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity? The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn. The groves were the first temples The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. Larger and finer meanings are read into the older legends of the plants, and the universality of certain myths is expressed in the concurrence of ideas in the beginnings of the great religions. One of the first figures in the leading cosmologies is a tree of life guarded by a serpent. In the Judaic faith this was the tree in the garden of Eden; the Scandinavians made it an ash, Ygdrasil; Christians usually specify the tree as an apple, Hindus as a soma, Persians as a homa, Cambodians as a talok; this early tree is the vine of Bacchus, the snake-entwined caduceus of Mercury, the twining creeper of the Eddas, the bohidruma of Buddha, the fig of Isaiah, the tree of Aesculapius with the serpent around his trunk That each day I may walk unceasingly on the banks of my water, that my soul may repose on the branches of the trees which I planted, that I may refresh myself under the shadow of my sycomore Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence. And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky. For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital to our own lives; or even, more specifically, some secret vital to our real, our lasting and spiritual existence. There is an inextricable link between people and trees, especially old trees. From all the thousands of uses we have put them to, and all the fears and desires we have projected onto them, human cultures around the world have emerged from the trees. Now that we know our ABUSE of trees has bought ruin to them and us, we turn again to the venerable ones, searching for some resilient spirit Time-honored, beautiful, solemn and wise. Noble, sacred and ancient Trees reach the highest heavens and penetrate the deepest secrets of the earth. Trees are the largest living beings on this planet. Trees are in communion with the spiritual and the material. Trees guard the forests and the sanctified places that must not be spoiled. Trees watch over us and provide us with what we need to live on this planet. Trees provide a focal point for meditation, enlightenment, guidance and inspiration. Trees have a soul, spirit.