Life is a system of recurrent pairs, the poison and the antidote being eternally packaged together by some considerate heavenly druggist.

I was going to get myself recognized at any price. If I could not win fame by goodness, I was ready to do it by badness.

The fact is that gardening, more than most of our other activities except sometimes love-making, confronts us with the inexplicable.

Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished.

...the tourist Venice is Venice.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.