A garden has a curious innocent way of consuming cash while all the time you are under the illusion that you are spending nothing.

Country things are the necessary root of our life - and that remains true even of a rootless and tragically urban civilization. To live permanently away from the country is a form of slow death.

Books, to the reading child, are so much more than books-they are dreams and knowledge, they are a future, and a past.

It is only after a fair portion of one's life that one really knows what are the things that matter, the things that will remain until the end.

Always, our eyes look backwards with the conviction that then, and not now, was the golden age.

There is nothing in nature quite so joyful as the very young and silly lamb - odd that it should develop into that dull and sober animal the sheep.

A horse, if he happens to have a contemptuous disposition, can sneer very effectively.

It is so often the odd, the unexpected, the apparently trifling, that stamps itself upon the memory for ever, while much more memorable things pass away like a breath of wind.

Youthful days are longer than those of later years, as we all learn as we grow older.

Too often fear is fiction madly running amuck, all the while madly tracking ‘muck’ across the floor of fact.

My whole life had split in two: Smith and not Smith. I liked the Smith parts of it so much better.

I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin

When you create a basic budget and stick to it, it will suddenly seem like you have more money.

The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.

This man [ Donald Trump] won in an electoral landslide.

The last time when I handed over information was in February or March 1949.

Asking me why I did or didn't do anything is generally pointless. How do I know? And asking me what I'll do in the future is even less rewarding.

Healthy parakeets have the nervous energy of tennis players.

Everyone says surgery is the easy way out, but going under the knife is never the easy way out. You don't know if you're going to come back out of it and whether there will be complications.