The wise traveler is he who is perpetually surprised.

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

how poor and disheartening a thing is experience compared with hope!

Flowers really do intoxicate me.

The true solitary ... will feel that he is himself only when he is alone; when he is in company he will feel that he perjures himself, prostitutes himself to the exactions of others; he will feel that time spent in company is time lost; he will be conscious only of his impatience to get back to his true life.

There are no signposts in the sea.

The farmer and the gardener are both busy, the gardener perhaps the more excitable of the two, for he is more of the amateur, concerned with the creation of beauty rather than with the providing of food. Gardening is a luxury occupation; an ornament, not a necessity, of life.