Quotes from Liberty Hyde Bailey

There are two essential epochs in any enterprise - to begin, and to get done.

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

One's happiness depends less on what he knows than on what he feels.

We accept it because we have seen the vision. We know that we cannot reap the harvest, but we hope that we may so well prepare the land and so diligently sow the seed that our successors may gather the ripened grain.

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.

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

Every decade needs its own manual of handicraft.

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

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.

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.

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

My life has been a continuous fulfillment of dreams. It appears that everything I saw and did has a new, and perhaps, more significant meaning, every time I see it. The earth is good. It is a privilege to live thereon.

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

No beast has ever conquered the earth; and the natural world has never been conquered by muscular force.

There is great satisfaction in a well-made clean tool that does its work well.

When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.

Anyone who acquires more than the usual amount of knowledge concerning a subject is bound to leave it as his contribution to the knowledge of the world.

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.

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

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

When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.

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

Anyone who acquires more than the usual amount of knowledge concerning a subject is bound to leave it as his contribution to the knowledge of the world.

My life has been a continuous fulfillment of dreams. It appears that everything I saw and did has a new, and perhaps, more significant meaning, every time I see it. The earth is good. It is a privilege to live thereon.