Books, to the reading child, are so much more than books-they are dreams and knowledge, they are a future, and a past.

Country things are the necessary root of our life - and that remains true even of a rootless and tragically urban civilization. To live permanently away from the country is a form of slow death.

Always, our eyes look backwards with the conviction that then, and not now, was the golden age.

A garden has a curious innocent way of consuming cash while all the time you are under the illusion that you are spending nothing.

There is nothing in nature quite so joyful as the very young and silly lamb - odd that it should develop into that dull and sober animal the sheep.

It is so often the odd, the unexpected, the apparently trifling, that stamps itself upon the memory for ever, while much more memorable things pass away like a breath of wind.

It is only after a fair portion of one's life that one really knows what are the things that matter, the things that will remain until the end.