LEAF QUOTES

quotations about leaves

We take it for granted that plants have green leaves for photosynthesis, but green vegetation may be a reflection of the solar spectrum on the Earth. Our sun is a G-class (yellow) star, which emits a peak spectrum in the visual range. Additionally, the Earth's atmosphere has a significant effect on the light reaching the ground, making it ideal for plants to absorb in blue or red. What if we discover a habitable planet around a different star? NASA and CalTech have already looked into this possibility. On a planet orbiting an F-class (yellow-white) star, which is somewhat hotter than the sun, photosynthesis will most likely concentrate on blue and green wavelengths, because that's where the energy peak will be. Leaves there will reflect mostly in yellow, orange, and red. It would be "fall" year-round, at least based on the coloration of Earth's vegetation.

STEVEN SPENCE

"Autumn Leaves: Last, Loveliest Smile", Got Science, October 27, 2015


Leaves are light, and useless, and idle, and wavering, and changeable; they even dance; yet God has made them part of oak; in so doing He has given us a lesson not to deny the stout-heartedness within, because we see the lightsomeness without.

JULIUS CHARLES HARE

attributed, Guesses at Truth

Tags: Julius Charles Hare


The fall of leaves is an emblem of the decline of life.

R. TREVOR

attributed, Day's Collacon


Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

MARTIN LUTHER

attributed, The Lutheran Witness, 1935

Tags: Martin Luther


Do you know why the leaves change colour?... Before a tree sheds a leaf it pumps it full of all the poison it can't rid itself of otherwise. That red there--that's a man's skin blotching with burst veins after an assassin spikes his last meal with roto-weed. The poison spreading through him before he dies.

MARK LAWRENCE

Emperor of Thorns


Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower.

ALBERT CAMUS

attributed, Visions from Earth

Tags: Albert Camus


So bright in death I used to say,
So beautiful through frost and cold!
A lovelier thing I know to-day,
The leaf is growing old,
And wears in grace of duty done,
The gold and scarlet of the sun.

MARGARET ELIZABETH SANGSTER

"A Maple Leaf"

Tags: Margaret Elizabeth Sangster


I love the chill October days, when the brown leaves lie thick and sodden underneath your feet.

JEROME K. JEROME

"Silhouettes"

Tags: Jerome K. Jerome


As fall the light autumnal leaves, one still the other following, till the bough strews all its honors on the earth below.

DANTE ALIGHIERI

The Vision; or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise


The leaves do not change color from the blighting touch of the frost, but from the process of natural decay. They fall when the fruit has been ripened and their work is done. And their splendid change of coloring is but their graceful and beautiful surrender of life, when they have finished their summer offering of service to God and man.

TRYON EDWARDS

Light for the Day


The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

"Woods in Winter"

Tags: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


The calm shade
Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze
That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm
To thy sick heart.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

"Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood"

Tags: William Cullen Bryant


Ho! for the leaves that eddy down,
Crumpled yellow and withered brown,
Hither and yonder and up the street
And trampled under the passing feet;
Swirling, billowing, drifting by,
With a whisper soft and a rustling sigh,
Starting aloft to windy ways,
Telling the coming of bonfire days.

GRACE STRICKLER DAWSON

"Bonfire Days"


Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

EMILY BRONTË

"Fall, Leaves, Fall"

Tags: Emily Brontë


Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium.

JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER

Physiognomy

Tags: Johann Caspar Lavater


There is not a single leaf which is a mere ornament; all contribute to the fruitfulness of the earth, and the support of its inhabitants.

CHRISTOPH CHRISTIAN STURM

Reflections on the Works of God and of His Providence


The rustling of the leaves is like a low hymn to nature.

JAMES ELLIS

attributed, Day's Collacon


Happy, happy, happy for all that God hath done,
Glad of all the little leaves dancing in the sun.

ALFRED NOYES

Drake: An English Epic


Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves,
O flakes of snow,
For which, through naked trees, the winds
A-mourning go?

JOHN BANISTER TABB

"Phantoms", Poems


And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf.

EMILY DICKINSON

"Indian Summer"

Tags: Emily Dickinson