There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness.

Every decade needs its own manual of handicraft.

When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.

The man who worries morning and night about the dandelions in the lawn will find great relief in loving the dandelions.

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.

The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset.

Give the children an opportunity to make garden. Let them grow what they will. It matters less that they grow good plants than that they try for themselves.

The happiest life has the greatest number of points of contact with the world, and it has the deepest feeling and sympathy with everything that is.

One does not begin to make a garden until he wants a garden. To want a garden is to be interested in plants, in the winds and rains, in birds and insects, in the warm-smelling earth.

Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation, philosophy, religion.

A person cannot love a plant after he has pruned it, then he has either done a poor job or is devoid of emotion.

All romantic novels end the same way, but it's the process of getting there that provides all the enjoyment.

Them lady poets must not marry, pal.

Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.

Art is the refreshing source of existence.

The problem of individual differences and group differences would not be made to disappear by abolishing tests. One cannot treat a fever by throwing away the thermometer.

If a poet knows more about a horse than he does about heaven, he might better stick to the horse, and some day the horse may carry him into heaven.

Everyone has freedom to say whatever they want to say. I think it takes a stronger person to hold their tongue as opposed to speaking out.

I saw Grizzly Man; I know what can happen.

Roxy, stop being so obnoxious!" -Joy "I'm never obnoxious; I'm just concerned." -Roxy

The smack of California earth shall linger on the palate of your grandson.