June falls asleep upon her bier of flowers; In vain are dewdrops sprinkled o'er her, In vain would fond winds fan her back to life, Her hours are numbered on the floral dial.

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.

Whatever with the past has gone, The best is always yet to come.

He who plants a tree, plants a hope.

The peach-bud glows, the wild bee hums, and wind-flowers wave in graceful gladness.

A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us.

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good.

When April steps aside for May, Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten; Fresh violets open every day: To some new bird each hour we listen.

Some of us must wait for the best human gifts until we come to heavenly places. Our natural desire for musical utterance is perhaps a prophecy that in a perfect world we shall all know how to sing.

Every true friend is a glimpse of God.

I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough.

I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.

As I stare at it, I can feel little invisible strings, silently tugging me toward it. I have to touch it. I have to wear it. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Friendship isn't measured in days, months or years, it's measured in the way someone makes you feel.

It felt as if things were literally slipping through my fingers. Things were just streaming away from me. I lost my sense of humor. I'm still looking for that.

I look at my people, and I look at those who control them - the political elite. And the sad thing is that the elites are just not interested in the welfare of the people.

There's a certain level of pageantry with 'Idol,' and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.

The beauty of modesty ... a virtue the world doesn't have much truck with: one ordinary flower in a vase, as opposed to a bouquet.

I don't play for the guitarists in the audience. I play for the musicians.

The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you've done a story justice, you're in the wrong business.

Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into time and tune.