If the art of gardening is at last to turn back from her extravagances and rest with her other sisters, it is, above everything, necessary to have clearly before you what you require . . . It is certainly tasteless and inconsistent to desire to encompass the world with a garden-wall, but very practicable and reasonable to make a garden . . . into a characteristic whole to the eye, heart, and nderstanding alike.

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.

Eternity gives nothing back of what one leaves out of the minutes.

It is not the mere station of life that stamps the value on us, but the manner in which we act our part.

Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits.

The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.

The worst of me is known, and I can say that I am better than the reputation I bear.