The forest can calm and inspire. Over the centuries poets, artists, and great thinkers alike have gained insight from taking a simple stroll through the woods. The forest can make one feel very small, thus allowing a person to see beyond their own self and feel connected to something much bigger. The following is a collection of famous quotes about trees and forests. Hopefully, they will inspire you to take a closer look and feel more connected with your local forests.

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - American poet, Robert Frost.

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." - Romantic English poet, Lord Byron.

"Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?" - American poet and humanist, Walt Whitman.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time" - Author, Baron John Lubbock.

"But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything." - Philosopher, Alan Watts.

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn," - American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - Naturalist, John Muir.

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit." - Author, Robert Louis Stevenson.

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines." - Author and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau.

Forests and the trees they contain can bring feelings of serenity and stillness to those who take the time to observe and enjoy them. The next time you have the opportunity, get outside and enjoy the wonders of the forest.