I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that ... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature.

To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man's, into the world, as it is God's.

Enjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th' approaches of the last.

What shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own?

Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.

Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company.

The present is an eternal now.