Friendship
"The World is so empty if one thinks
only of the mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The true meaning of life is to plant
trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
- Nelson Henderson
"Peace, liberty, brotherhood, prosperity and justice for all."
"Gardening, I told myself, is the most
sociable of hobbies. The very nature of one's field of activities demands an audience. No one wants flowers to blush unseen or waste their sweetness."
- Barbara Cheney, Atlantic Monthly (June 1936)
"It's the flock, the grove, that
matters. Our responsibility is to species, not to specimens; to communities, not to individuals."
- Sara Stein, 1998, Noah's Garden
"You don't have a garden just for
yourself. You have it to share."
- Augusta Carter
"If the earth is man's extended body,
to be loved and respected as one's own body, those who do no greening of themselves will hardly bring about the greening of America. The idea of 'greening' involves color, flowering, freshness of spring, and, above all, respect for what is organic and vegetative as distinct from the mechanical and metallic."
- Alan Watts, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown, 1968,
p. 111
"You ask how many friends I have?
Water and stone, bamboo and pine.
The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade.
Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I ask? "
- Yon Sun-do (1587-1671), Korean Poet, Sigo
"May we all be able to find a government that
enables us to create and work for a better life, respect liberty, and pursue
happiness. May be enjoy freedom from religious oppression, and be allowed to
speak our minds in a civil manner. May we avoid hatred, fear, stealing, lying,
and fighting for impractical idealistic causes. We should not enslave people,
disrespect the rights of women, and persecute minorities. Let us encourage gun
free zones in our civil society. Let us cultivate peace, tolerance, patience,
and prosperity. Let us work at our jobs diligently, intelligently, creatively,
and with pride. Let us preserve and protect our environment for future
generations. Let is strive for good health, vitality, and positive mental
health. Let us mind our own business when appropriate, and avoid listening to
men with extreme and angry opinions and facile solutions to difficult problems.
Let us encourage kindness, generosity, simplicity, and community cooperation.
May reason and justice be our guides. May we deliberate calmly and avoid
extreme and inflexible opinions. May we remember and respect the hardworking
and decent wise women and men of the past."
- Michael P. Garofalo,
Dependence Day - The Fourth of July
"Out of gardens grow fleeting flowers but
lasting friendships."
- Beverly Rose Hopper
"The true spirit of conversation
consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it."
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton
"Quien a buen arbol se arrima, buena
sombra le cobija.
He who gets close to a good tree, will have a good shade."
- Spanish Proverb
"Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your
friends."
- Czech Proverb
"How can those who do not garden, who
have no lot in the great fraternity of those who watch the changing year as it affects the earth and its growth, how can they keep warm their hearts in winter?"
- Francis King
"A garden is a public service and
having one a public duty.
It is a man's contribution to the community."
- Richardson Wright, Truly Rural, 1922
"To know someone here or there with
whom you can
feel there is understanding in spite of distances or
thoughts unexpressed - that can make this life a garden."
- Goethe
"A garden is an expression of Man in a state of society."
"Friendship is a sheltering tree."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed its the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
"If your garden was
there before you were, chances are it grew out of many other's dreams."
- Ferris Cook
"... garden books are quite unconscious that
besides telling us how to turn our patch of earth into a garden, they are also expressing the way their age looks at the world, the state of their society."
- Nan Fairbrother, Men and Gardens, 1956, p. 30
"But friendship is precious, not only
in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."
- Thomas Jefferson
"That which is not good for the
beehive cannot be good for the bees."
- Marcus Aurelius
"To love and be loved is to feel the
sun from both sides."
- David Viscott
"Aren't gardening people the happiest,
friendliest, and most generous people you know? Why do you suppose gardening is the #1 hobby in America? Why are there so many people across the state waiting in line to become Master Gardeners or joining the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, individually, as couples, or as a youth? Why are so many millions of dollars spent in gardening retail stores every year? Gardening touches everyone in some way, be it beauty, color, solitude,
food, memories, therapy, land value, exercise (some of the best), to attract wildlife or just the thrill of making something grow. It’s a great
way to have quality time with your family and friends."
- The
Gardener's Touch Sonya Robinson
"The community stagnates without the
impulse of the individual.
The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community."
- William James
"I give to thee great gardens, with
trees and vines in the temple of Atuma, I give to thee lands with olive trees in the city of On. I have furnished them with
gardeners, and many men to make ready oil of Egypt for kindling the lamps of thy noble temple.
I give to thee trees and wood, date palms, incense, and lotus, rushes, grasses, and flowers of every land, to set before thy fair face."
- Rameses III, 1155 BCE
"With fronds like you, who needs anemones."
"If you want one year of prosperity,
grow grain.
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people."
- Chinese Proverb
"I will say leave a good quarter of
the time for
feast and celebration or your soul will die."
- Francois Monnet
"The object in America is to avoid
contact, to treat all as foes unless they're known to be friends. Here you have a million crabs living in a million crevices. ... But the garden's greatest benefit, I feel, as not relief to the eyes, but to make the eyes sees our neighbors."
- Paul Fleischman, Seedfolks
"Fame is the scentless sunflower, with
gaudy crown of gold;
But friendship is the rose, with sweets in every fold."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Go often to the house of a friend;
for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow."
- Swedish Proverbs
"Be Not Solitary. Be Not Idle."
"The best things that can come
out of the garden
are gifts for other people."
- Jamie Jobb
"Smile at each other, smile at your
wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other."
- Mother Teresa
Caring, Compassion and Generosity - Quotes for Gardeners
"A garden is a friend you can visit any time."
"Friends are like the pillars on a
porch. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it's just enough to know that they are standing by."
- Author Unknown
"Friends are flowers in life's garden."
"Be courteous to all, but intimate
with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a
plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."
- George Washington
Interdependence - Quotes for Gardeners
"The purpose of seasonal festivals is
periodically to revive the topocosm. Gaster coined this word from the Greek - topo for
place and cosmos for world order. Topocosm means "the world order of a particular place." The topocosm is the entire
complex of any given locality conceived as a living organism - not just the human community but the total community - the
plants, animals and soils of the place. The topocosm is not only the actual and present living community but also that
continuous entity of which the present community is but the current manifestation."
- Dolores La Chapelle, Ritual is Essential
"Take out the weeds from some wild
spot,
remove each stone that shows,
plant seeds of friendship good and deep,
and tend the plant that grows."
- Mary Freeman Startzman
"Friendship is the shadow of the
evening, which strengthens with the setting sun of life."
- Jean de La Fontaine
"I have been much afflicted again
lately by visitors . . . and they gave me to understand that if they had had the arranging of the garden it would have been finished long ago - whereas I don't
believe a garden is ever finished. They have all gone now, thank heaven."
- Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth & her German Garden,
1898
"Gardening can be a compelling
cooperative activity.
Your best harvest may be the pleasure you get from working
with family and friends. There's never a shortage of things to
do, no limit to the lessons that can be learned, especially for
children, and there's always plenty of credit to go around,
even for the mistakes."
- Steven Willson
"You're giving a part
of yourself when you grow a plant
and give it to somebody else."
- Art Scarpa
"Snowflakes are one of nature’s
most fragile things,
but just look what they can do when they stick together."
- Vista M. Kelly
"But there's more than just solving
the how-to problems. I've often said that if we're going to have a real rural renaissance, I'd just take the solving of the how-to problems for granted. The first thing I'd provide
would be festivals."
- Ralph Borsodi
"If by some chance I
woke up tomorrow morning with a crown on my head and a magic wand in
my hand .... I would never pay farmers not to farm. Or dairymen not to raise cattle."
- Beverly Beckham
"Go often to the house of a friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path."
- Scandinavian Proverb
Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative
More Quotes
for
Gardeners
Spirituality and Concerns of the Soul
Simplicity
and the Simple Life
Pulling Onions
Quips, Maxims and Observations by Michael P.
Garofalo
Haiku Poetry - Links and References
Clichés for Gardeners and Farmers
The History of Gardening
Timeline
From Ancient Times to the 20th Century
Search the Spirit of Gardening Website
Search Tips and Advanced Atomz Searching
Quotes
for Gardeners
Quotes, Sayings, Proverbs, Poetry, Maxims, Quips,
Clichés, Adages, Wisdom
A Collection Growing to Over 2,700 Quotes, Arranged by 130 Topics
Many of the Documents Include Recommended Readings and Internet Links.
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Distributed on the Internet by Michael P. Garofalo
I Welcome Your Comments, Ideas,
Contributions, and Suggestions
E-mail Mike Garofalo in Red Bluff, California
A Short Biography of Mike Garofalo
Community - Quotes for Gardeners: Version
4.7
The History of Gardening Timeline
Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong