Looking for tree quotes to share with your friends on social media, to jot in journals, or sprinkle through your writings? I’ve collected ‘hug a tree’ quotes and more from around the web to make you smile and your work purposeful. Scroll down…the first quote takes up some room.
What started tree-hugging? The idea of ‘hug-a-tree” first came about from activists using their bodies as physical barriers, hugging a tree, to protect prized and sacred forests.
Examples of what started the term ‘tree hugging’ include the actions by the Bishnois movement in 1974 in Uttar Pradesh and by those against woodchipping of old forests in Tasmania and the destruction of the heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest in northern Australia.
Today, people look to tree-hugging as a way of earthing, more so, like going barefoot, to connect your Self with nature, destress, and find balance and natural good vibes.
Inspirational hug-a-Tree Quotes
Here are a bunch of quotes that are inspirational about getting out there, hugging trees, and connecting with nature for self-wilding…
“Tree hugging is the easiest yoga art to connect you with nature.”
— Amit Ray, Yoga the Science of Well-Being
“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.”
― George Nakashima
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.”
― Herman Hesse
“In a very simple widely circulated image of natural cycles trees are post children for a balanced system.”
— Peter Wohlleben, Forest Ranger and Author of The Hidden Life of Trees
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
― John Muir
“Trees give peace to the souls of men.”
― Nora Waln
“If you want to have peace on this planet full of stress and turmoil, go to a tree, and hug it.”
— Banani Ray, Meditation Walking the Path of Peace
“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”
― Hal Borland
“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, to be without our roots.”
― Richard Mabey
“Our appreciation for trees affects the way we interact with the world around us.”
— Peter Wohlleben, Forest Ranger and Author of The Hidden Life of Trees
“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.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson
“He that plants trees loves others beside himself.”
— Thomas Fuller
“They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers.”
— James G. Watt
“I’m not an environmentalist. I’m an Earth warrior.”
— Darryl Cherney
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”
— Nelson Henderson
“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”
–John Muir
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
— Kahlil Gebran
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
— William Shakespeare
“Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come.”
— Karen Joy Fowler
“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.”
— Paulo Coelho
“Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being.”
— Victor Hugo
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“All our wisdom is stored in the trees.”
— Santosh Kalwar
“I’m such a fan of nature, and being with the trees every day fills me with joy.”
— Scott Blum
“When you’re outnumbered by trees your perspective shifts.”
— Jessica Marie Baumgartner
Quirky Hug a Tree facts
Hug a Tree day
This is a celebrated national tree day for the planting of plenty of trees to add green space for shade and other benefits offered by plants. Especially, it aids recovery of nature that has been ravaged by fires. PlanetArk runs such a program.
Hug a tree and survive
The ‘Hug a Tree and Survive’ is a Northern American education program to help people, especially children, survive if lost in a forest or wilderness area. It was started in San Diego, California after a nine-year-old boy, Jimmy Beveridge died in the Palomar mountains in 1981.
Hugging a tree in China
Did you know that allegedly tree hugging is banned in China? It is said that it started with a mass tree-hugging incident outside of China’s imperial garden at Zhongnanhai. The Chinese government deemed the tree huggers as an existential danger to China’s stability. Those who had been known for their tree-hugging ways were rounded up and made to sign pledges saying they wouldn’t ever again hug trees.
Hugging a tree in Iceland
Iceland’s forestry service urged the country’s citizens to hug a tree for physical contact to remedy isolation during 2020.
Feel free to share these as tree captions on Instagram or jottings in journals etc.
Before you go…
There are many reasons to love a tree and many reasons to use quotes. Read my next article for more quotes to inspire you…
