Click, clack, click, clack, went their conversation, like so many knitting-needles, purl, plain, purl, plain, achieving a complex pattern of references, cross-references, Christian names, nicknames, and fleeting allusions.

There is something intrinsically wrong about letters. For one thing they are not instantaneous. ... Nor is this the only trouble about letters. They do not arrive often enough. A letter which has been passionately awaited should be immediately supplemented by another one, to counteract the feeling of flatness that comes upon us when the agonizing delights of anticipation have been replaced by the colder flood of fulfilment.

The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.

Successful gardening is not necessarily a question of wealth, it is a question of love, taste, and knowledge.

Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong.

It is no good my telling you. One never believes other people's experiencem and one is only very gradually convinced by one's own.

Travel is a private pleasure, since it consists entirely of things felt and things seen.