Memorable Quotes, Poems, Songs and Such
The above quote was brought to our attention as a result of being spotted on a wall at "The Magic of Middle-earth" Exhibition at the Novium Museum (1st April - 24th September 2023)*. And so crystallised the idea of a page on our website to curate memorable tree quotes - the words we read that chime with our own thoughts and feelings and stick in our heads. It soon became obvious that poems, voice and songs would also feature, and perhaps some artwork too! We hope you enjoy the content we've found, and we would love to hear your favourite quotes (and such) that you'd like us to feature too. Do get in touch.
* Its presentation here is thanks to its citation at Goodreads, where there many more besides. Thanks to Olls for the original Novium spot.
"The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations."
Book of Revelation, at the end of the Bible, chapter 22 verse 2
(Explore different versions of this quote here.)
This is a favourite of ChiTrees project volunteer, Martin, who tells us:
"The Tree depicted is one of the spiritual symbols used to summarise the Christian belief that Christ will eventually bring God's kingdom to all the world and heal every nation of the evil that is so damaging to humanity and all creation.
It is a very special joy to me that Treezilla now enables us to be given and publicise the OBJECTIVE environmental healing benefits of the trees in our community. So our surveys are
giving an extra contemporary meaning to this rather strange and mystical idea dating back to the end of the first century AD."
"Begin afresh, afresh, afresh." Larkin looks at the annual cycle of deciduous trees, recording the passing years in "rings of grain".
Our Favourite Trees
A compilation of listener's tree stories aired on BBC Radio 4's Today programme and available now on BBC Sounds
Quotes are accompanied by photographs on the programme's Instagram feed in posts that you can enjoy below. (The feeds may only display properly here if you have an Instagram account.)
Throughout June 2023, BBC Radio 4's Today programme celebrated the connection between people and trees. Listeners sent in photos of their favourite trees and voiced why they mean so much.
One of the contributors, Charlotte from Wakefield, recounted finding out how her grandad had been given permission to plant a row of flowering cherry trees on his street in Wakefield in 1959. "There's an incredible kindness in the act of planting trees." Listen out for Charlotte's moving contribution from 11.32 to 12.58 within a diversity of uplifting relationships with trees; meet Tim from Cumbria's favourite ("Bevan (the Scots pine) and I have been acquainted for over 30 years now. He was named after the Michael Palin lumberjack character in a Monty Python sketch."); and more.
Celebrated author, poet and Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005, hear Michael acknowledge not only trees everywhere (city, coast and countryside) but that "we've been cutting down too many trees and not replacing them". There's also joy in the enduring appeal of conkers, and in being able to say "and who planted it? We did!"
"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars."
Attributed to the great Protestant reformer Martin Luther in the 16th century, although composer Elizabeth Arden's research indicates this is unlikely. (Read why, and listen to the music and lyrics the quote inspired here, although sadly limited, for our purposes, in tree references!)
Another of volunteer Martin's favourite quotes, he tells us Martin Luther is also reputed to have stated "Even if the world comes to an end tomorrow I ought to plant a tree today!".
"If a tree dies, plant another in its place.”
Carl Linnaeus
(seen as a plaque on a photograph, found online here)
Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae in 1735, a new system for classifying
the natural world that has evolved and is still in use today.