The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land.

The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.

A garden has this advantage, that it makes it indifferent where you live. A well-laid garden makes the face of the country of no account; let that be low or high, grand or mean, you have made a beautiful abode worthy of man.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

Character is an invincible force, which acts by presence and without means

I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.