No beast has ever conquered the earth; and the natural world has never been conquered by muscular force.
— Liberty Hyde Bailey
I do not yet know why plants come out of the land or float in streams, or creep on rocks or roll from the sea. I am entranced by the mystery of them, and absorbed by their variety and kinds. Everywhere they are visible yet everywhere occult.
There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness.
Extension work is not exhortation. Nor is it exploitation of the people, or advertising of an institution, or publicity work for securing students. It is a plain, earnest, and continuous effort to meet the needs of the people on their own farms and in the localities.
There are two essential epochs in any enterprise - to begin, and to get done.
One's happiness depends less on what he knows than on what he feels.
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.
When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.
Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation, philosophy, religion.
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.
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.
The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset.
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.
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.
Every decade needs its own manual of handicraft.
