It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated, unsophisticated trout in unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in their primitive taste for the worm. No sportsman however, will use anything but the fly, except when he happens to be alone.

Blessed be agriculture! if one does not have too much of it.

The principal value of a garden is not understood. It is not to give the possessors vegetables and fruit (that can be better and cheaper done by the market-gardeners), but to teach him patience and philosophy, and the higher virtues - hope deferred, and expectations blighted, leading directly to resignation, and sometimes to alienation.

I do not know the names of all the weeds and plants, I have to do as Adam did in his garden... name things as I find them.

There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.

People always overdo the matter when they attempt deception.

The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world.