Life seems like a haunted wood, where we tremble and crouch and cry.

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.

Public opinion is no more than this: what people think that other people think.

Alfred Austin said, "Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

Tears are Summer showers to the soul.

We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.

Faded smiles oft linger in the face, While grief's first flakes fall silent on the heart!

There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.

Pale January lay In its cradle day by day Dead or living, hard to say.

Exclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society.

Though my verse but roam the air And murmur in the trees, You may discern a purpose there, As in music of the bees.

Crises is the code that can open the gene of success for some.

Life has existential suffering

You will either have value, or be grist for the mill — nothing more.

If it is ones lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness.

Good habits are worth being fanatical about.

Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness.

Fame is very agreeable, but the bad thing is that it goes on 24 hours a day.

Induction makes you feel guilty for getting something out of nothing, and it is artificial, but it is one of the greatest ideas of civilization.

There's always pressure, a great deal of pressure, when writing, since my first books were so successful.

Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can't handle!