Hal Borland Quotes
Born: May 14, 1900
Hal Borland, a lyrical voice of the American landscape, channeled the raw energy of nature into profound lessons on motivation and action. A Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and longtime New York Times columnist, he believed that true wisdom is forged not in stillness, but in the deliberate motion of living. Borland’s philosophy, rooted in the quiet dignity of rural life, urges us to move with purpose, embrace the seasons of change, and find strength in simple, deliberate acts. His words resonate because they strip away pretense, offering a rugged, soulful call to rise, persist, and engage with the world.
Hal Borland Quotes (15)
"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
— Hal Borland"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."
— Hal Borland"April is a promise that May is bound to keep."
— Hal Borland"A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart."
— Hal Borland"If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees."
— Hal Borland"Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night."
— Hal Borland"October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again."
— Hal Borland"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."
— Hal Borland"You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet."
— Hal Borland"Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January."
— Hal Borland"Man is wise and constantly in quest of more wisdom; but the ultimate wisdom, which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls forth faith rather than reason."
— Hal Borland"A snowdrift is a beautiful thing - if it doesn't lie across the path you have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination."
— Hal Borland"The ultimate wisdom which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls faith rather than reason."
— Hal Borland"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
— Hal Borland"To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach."
— Hal Borland