The gifts of Heaven are never quite gratuitous.

Art is not tame, and Nature is not wild, in the ordinary sense. A perfect work of man's art would also be wild or natural in a good sense.

Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art.

I would stand upon facts.

The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus.