Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. – Henry David Thoreau

We think that diamonds are very important, gold is very important, all these minerals are very important. We call them precious minerals, but they are all forms of the soil. But that part of this mineral that is on top, like it is the skin of the earth, that is the most precious of the commons. – Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), Dirt! The Movie, 2009

Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. – Douglas William Jerrold, about Australia, A Land of Plenty

It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves. – Robert Louis Stevenson