I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding. I went crazy over the outdoor work, and at last had to confine myself to the house, or literature must have gone by the board.
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a poor substitute for life.
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
There is but one art, to omit.
Do not forget that even as “to work is to worship” so to be cheery is to worship also, and to be happy is the first step to being pious.
When the grass was closely mown, Walking on the lawn alone, In the turf a hole I found, And hid a soldier underground. Spring and daisies came apace; Grasses hide my hiding place; Grasses run like a green sea O’er the lawn up to my knee.
An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself.
After all, the commonplaces are the great poetic truths.
Restfulness is a quality for cattle; the virtues are all active, life is alert.
Away with funeral music-set The pipe to powerful lips- The cup of life’s for him that drinks And not for him that sips.
The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us.
You can read Kant by yourself, if you wanted to; but you must share a joke with someone else.
In the law of God, there is no statute of limitations.
No human being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes me suspect that we hear too much of it in literature.
The little rift between the sexes is astonishingly widened by simply teaching one set of catchwords to the girls and another to the boys.
Live life to the fullest.
I have done my fiddling so long under Vesuvius that I have almost forgotten to play, and can only wait for the eruption and think it long of coming. Literally no man has more wholly outlived life than I. And still it’s good fun.
A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation.
And my heart springs up anew, Bright and confident and true, And the old love comes to meet me, in the dawning and the dew.
Children are certainly too good to be true.