To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes; to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures; to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration; to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables; to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy.
John Burroughs, Charlotte ZoĆ« Walker (2001). “The Art of Seeing Things: Essays”, p.5, Syracuse University Press