The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove ones self a fool the truest heroism is to resist the doubt and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing second, the gratification of ones family and friends and lastly, the solid cash. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them. I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master. I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit. – Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden, 1909