---
title: "2 Drift Quotes By Robert Macfarlane"
description: "2 Drift quotes by Robert Macfarlane. Plus more from Robert Macfarlane and more Drift sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f6/robert-macfarlane-11240_around-the-world_ideas-move-in-space-and-time-they-swim-l_1791116.png"
---

> [“Ideas move in space and time. They swim like fish. They drift like pollen. They migrate like birds. Sometimes their movement carries them right around the world, and they find new niches in which to flourish.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/ideas-move-in-space-and-time-they-swim-like-fish-they-drift-like/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5f6/robert-macfarlane-11240_around-the-world_ideas-move-in-space-and-time-they-swim-l_1791116.png)

> [“Look — here it comes, its bones are plastic, it builds itself from pallet slat & bottle top, rises from sift, is lashed & trussed with fishing line. It is drift: it has cuttlefish nails & sea-poppy horns, it breathes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/look-here-it-comes-its-bones-are-plastic-it-builds-itself-from-pallet/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/74b/robert-macfarlane-11240_cuttlefish_look-here-it-comes-its-bones-are-plastic_2249153.png)

## Other authors on Drift

- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b016/author-lil-wyte-60299.jpg) Becca Spradlin, Lead On Mission 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drift/becca-spradlin-lead-on-mission/)

## More by Robert Macfarlane

> [“The association of the wild and the wood also run deep in etymology. The two words are thought to have grown out of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/the-association-of-the-wild-and-the-wood-also-run-deep-in-etymology/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“We are adept, if occasionally embarrassed, at saying what we make of places - but we are far less good at saying what places…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/we-are-adept-if-occasionally-embarrassed-at-saying-what-we-make-of/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [Anyone who lives in a city will know the feeling of having been there too long. The gorge-vision that the streets imprint on us,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/anyone-who-lives-in-a-city-will-know-the-feeling-of-having-been-there/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“I had started climbing trees about three years earlier, or rather, re-started; for I had been at a school that had a wood for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/i-had-started-climbing-trees-about-three-years-earlier-or-rather-re/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“The whole foot is a document of motion, inscribed by repeated action. Babies - from those first foetal footfalls, the kneading of sole against…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/the-whole-foot-is-a-document-of-motion-inscribed-by-repeated-action/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“My grandparents... planted their land up with trees, both those native... and exotics which stood in memory of the countries where they had lived.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/my-grandparents-planted-their-land-up-with-trees-both-those-native/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“Touch is a reciprocal action, a gesture of exchange with the world. To make an impression is also to receive one, and the soles…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/touch-is-a-reciprocal-action-a-gesture-of-exchange-with-the-world-to/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [Knowing another is endless,' Shepherd had written; 'The thing to be known grows with the knowing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/knowing-another-is-endless-shepherd-had-written-the-thing-to-be-known/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/by-speaking-of-greater-forces-than-we-can-possibly-invoke-and-by/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [I remembered what Thoreau had written in his journal about thinking nothing of walking eight miles to greet a tree.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/i-remembered-what-thoreau-had-written-in-his-journal-about-thinking/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“...the instinct and the body (the felt smoothness of pebbles, the seen grain of light) must know in ways that the conscious mind cannot.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/the-instinct-and-the-body-the-felt-smoothness-of-pebbles-the-seen/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“meaning indifferent to the distinction between things. It is not, on the whole, that natural phenomena and entities themselves are disappearing; rather that there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/meaning-indifferent-to-the-distinction-between-things-it-is-not-on/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“When the lark sing he feels invulnerable.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/when-the-lark-sing-he-feels-invulnerable/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [“...he suggested that paths were imprinted with the 'dreams' of each traveler who had walked it and that his own experiences would in course…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/he-suggested-that-paths-were-imprinted-with-the-dreams-of-each/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

> [ “Although the disappearance of the true wildwood \[in the British Isles\] occurred in the Neolithic period, before humanity began to record its own history,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/although-the-disappearance-of-the-true-wildwood-in-the-british-isles/)

[Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/)

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