William H. Gass Quotes

Though nature is constantly beautiful, she does not exhibit her highest powers of beauty constantly, for then they would satiate us and pall upon our senses. It is necessary to their appreciation that they should be rarely shown. Her finest touches are things which must be watched for; her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent.

No matter what one looks at and finds temporarily pleasing, it can never be as beautiful as just a tree, really.

To leave out beautiful sunsets is the secret of good taste.

I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.

Land really is the best art.

Nothing in Nature is unbeautiful.

In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat.

Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom, golden in the green grass, This life can be. Common as a dandelion-blossom, beautiful in the clean grass, not beautiful Because common, beautiful because beautiful, Noble because common, because free.

Every spring I hear the thrush singing in the glowing woods he is only passing through. His voice is deep, then he lifts it until it seems to fall from the sky. I am thrilled. I am grateful. Then, by the end of morning, he's gone, nothing but silence out of the tree where he rested for a night. And this I find acceptable. Not enough is a poor life. But too much is, well, too much. Imagine Verdi or Mahler every day, all day. It would exhaust anyone.

Nature is beautiful, not because it changes beautifully, but simply because it changes.

You're beautiful, like a May fly.

The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.

What is art? Nature concentrated.

I have this obsession with pea pods. They're just really nice to look at. They can be perfect.

Beauty of expression is so akin to the voice of the sea.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it's just a daisy in a jelly glass.

To me, the world's rather beautiful if you look at it. Especially nature.

I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation.

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.

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.

As much as I love art, there is no art as fine as the world we have been given.

There is not a sprig of grass that grows uninteresting to me.

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.

Aesthetic experiences are powerful, to be sure, and probably inescapable, but Nature will not remain effective for very long.

The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives.