I am the fonder of my garden for all the trouble it gives me, and the grudging reward that my unending labours exact.

I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them. I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master. I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit.

All the wars of the world, all the Caesars, have not the staying power of a lily in a cottage garden.