Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.

The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern; and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.

How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!

To be active is the primary vocation of man.

Great endowments often announce themselves in youth in the form of singularity and awkwardness.

A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way.

Few men have imagination enough for reality.