WIST Quotations

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1712-09-06), The Spectator, No. 477

Dave — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 17:31:57 +0000

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1712-09-06), The Spectator, No. 477
(Source)

Austen, Jane -- Letter (1811-05-31) to Cassandra Austen

Dave — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 16:22:10 +0000

I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Letter (1811-05-31) to Cassandra Austen
(Source)

Cox, Marcelene -- “Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1944-09)

Dave — Tue, 30 May 2023 16:56:50 +0000

Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it’s soaking in around your green beans.

Marcelene Cox (1900-1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1944-09)
(Source)

Holland, Barbara -- Endangered Pleasures, “Gardening” (1995)

Dave — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 14:16:35 +0000

One’s own flowers and some of one’s own vegetables make acceptable, free, self-congratulatory gifts when visiting friends, though giving zucchini — or leaving it on the doorstep, ringing the bell, and running — is a social faux pas.

Barbara Holland (1933-2010) American author
Endangered Pleasures, “Gardening” (1995)
(Source)

Sarton, May -- At Seventy: A Journal, “Wednesday, June 23rd” (1973)

Dave — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 17:48:18 +0000

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.

May Sarton (1912-1995) Belgian-American poet, novelist, memoirist [pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton]
At Seventy: A Journal, “Wednesday, June 23rd” (1973)
(Source)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Familiares [Letters to Friends], Book 9, Letter 4, sec. 1 (9.4.1), to Marcus Terentius Varro (46 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]

Dave — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:55:09 +0000

If you have a garden in your library, we shall have all we want.

[Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Familiares [Letters to Friends], Book 9, Letter 4, sec. 1 (9.4.1), to Marcus Terentius Varro (46 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]
(Source)

In context, this is about Cicero discussing visiting Varro, and that he'll be happy to do so if the latter has a garden and a library, either to provide for body (vegetables) and mind, or else a garden library to have a pleasant place to think and talk during his visit.

The phrase, out of context and in more popular usage, changes the pronouns a bit, and is usually presented as a broad suggestion that all a person needs at their house to meet their mental and emotional needs is a garden and a library, e.g., the ubiquitous "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Let there be a garden in your Librarie, it is no matter for the rest.
[tr. Webbe (1620)]

As your library is situated in your garden, I shall want nothing to complete my two favorite amusements; reading and walking.
[tr. Melmoth (1753), 8.14]

If you have a garden in your library, everything will be complete.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1899), # 464]

If you have a kitchen garden in your library we shall lack for nothing.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1978), # 180]

If you have a garden in your library, you’ve got it all.
[tr. @sentantiq (2011)]

Jolson, Al -- “California, Here I Come” (1921) [with B. G. DeSylva]

Dave — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:43:50 +0000

California, here I come,
Right back where I started from.
Where bowers
Of flowers
Bloom in the sun;
Each mornin’
At dawnin’
Birdies sing and ev’rything.
A sun-kissed miss said, “Don’t be late.”
That’s why I can hardly wait.
Open up that Golden Gate,
California, here I come.

Al Jolson (1886-1950) Lithuanian-American singer, songwriger, comedian, actor [b. Asa Yoelson]
“California, Here I Come” (1921) [with B. G. DeSylva]

Written for the musical Bombo.

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Broken Homes (2013)

Dave — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:32:16 +0000

Landscaping is the great cardinal sin of modern architecture. It’s not your garden, it’s not a park — it’s a formless patch of grass, shrubbery and the occasional tree that exists purely to stop the original developer’s plans from looking like a howling concrete wilderness.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Broken Homes (2013)

Bacon, Francis -- “Of Gardens,” Essays, No. 46 (1625)

Dave — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:22:57 +0000

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Gardens,” Essays, No. 46 (1625)
(Source)

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572-03) [tr. Frame (1943)]

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:13:21 +0000

I want a man to act, and to prolong the functions of life as long as he can; and I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.

[Je veux qu’on agisse, et qu’on allonge les offices de la vie, tant qu’on peut: et que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux ; mais nonchallant d’elle, et encore plus de mon jardin imparfait.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572-03) [tr. Frame (1943)]
(Source)

Published in the 1580 ed.; the second clause (on prolonging the normal activities of life as long as possible) was added in the 1595 ed.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

I would have a man to be doing, and to prolong his lives offices, as much as lieth in him, and let death seize upon me, whilst I am setting my cabiges, carelesse of her darte, but more of my unperfect garden.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to extend, and spin out the Offices of life; and then let Death take me planting Cabages, but without any careful thought of him, and much less of my Garden’s not being finished.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

I would always have a man to be doing, and spinning out the offices of life as far as possible; and though death should seize me planting my cabbages, I should not be concerned at it, much less for leaving my garden unfinished.
[tr. Friswell (1868)]

I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to extend and spin out the offices of life; and then let death take me planting my cabbages, indifferent to him, and still less of my gardens not being finished.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

I desire that a man should act, and prolong the employments of life as long as he can, and that death may find me planting my cabbages, but indifferent regarding it, and even more regarding my unfinished garden.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but caring little for it, and even less about the imperfections of my garden.
[tr. Rat (1958)]

I want us to be doing things, prolonging life’s duties as much as we can; I want Death to find me planting my cabbages, neither worrying about it nor the unfinished gardening.
[tr. Screech (1987)]

I wish for us to be doing, and to carry on with our responsibilities in life while we still can. I want death to find me planting my cabbages, indifferent to it, with my garden still a work in progress.
[tr. HyperEssays (2024)]

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1712-09-06), The Spectator, No. 477

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1712-09-06), The Spectator, No. 477
(Source)

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so.

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]
(Source)

I have been unable to find an analog in other translations, or in the original French.

Shakespeare, William -- Henry VI, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 31ff (3.1.31-33) (1591)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

MARGARET: Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 31ff (3.1.31-33) (1591)
(Source)