I love quotes – a mix of wisdom, humour, advice and inspiration wrapped up in just a few words.  So as I go about my garden wanderings, meeting all kinds of people, reading books, listening to and watching programmes, podcasts, videos and the like, I come across quotes that resonate with me and which I don’t want to lose.  So I thought I would make a note of them and here they are.

“A wood on a winter’s eve, no matter where you are, when the snow is falling through the trees, is existence stripped back to the elements.”
– John Lewis-Stempel

“The best time to take a cutting? When no one is looking.”
– Bob Flowerdew

“To walk in a redwood forest is to enter nature’s cathedral”
– Unknown

“A little bit of fragrance always clings to the hands that gives you roses.”
– Robin S. Sharma

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.  He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.  He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.”
– St. Francis of Assisi (who clearly knew that Gardeners are artists!)

“Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again.”
– Carl Jung

“Anybody who wants to rule the world should try to rule a garden first.”
– Unknown

“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies”
– Gertrude Jekyll

“Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years”
– Unknown

“Life begins the day you start a garden”
– Chinese proverb

“God made rainy days so gardeners could get housework done”
– Unknown

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece”
– Claude Monet

More gardening quotes can be found here…

Some other non-gardening related quotes

“The most powerful drug in the world is kindness.  It works for everyone, it’s very hard to get the dose wrong and it’s free at the point of delivery.”
– Dr Brian Clarke (as seen in Private Eye)

“If we knew then what we know now, we’d be dangerous.”
– Mike Robertson (a colleague from many years ago talking with another colleague about their visits to night clubs).

“Wars are started by those with nothing to lose and fought by those with everything to lose.”
– Me! (Just an observation)

“You do not come back from hell with empty hands.”
– Peggy Noonan – Wall Street Journal column

“…Everything will be fine, she said – Just not today”.
– 45 Minutes in Central Park, Metropolitan Diary, New York Times, 12 Feb 2023