American Quotes

There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, you just touch it up once in a while.

You never find yourself until you face the truth.

What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.

Blanche is written with a terrible authority, the authority that comes from artistic necessity when the writer is compelled to write by his demon, rather than by his agent or promoter.

There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness.

There are two essential epochs in any enterprise - to begin, and to get done.

Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation, philosophy, religion.

One's happiness depends less on what he knows than on what he feels.

No beast has ever conquered the earth; and the natural world has never been conquered by muscular force.

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.

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.

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.

Every decade needs its own manual of handicraft.

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.

The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset.

A person cannot love a plant after he has pruned it, then he has either done a poor job or is devoid of emotion.

When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.

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.

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.

You can't serve up hearts like cherries jubilee.

More than 100 people are involved in a transplant operation... and we can't waste time and resources if there is a chance the caretakers aren't up for an awesome responsibility.

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

That a majority of the Abolitionists in this place would patronize a free labor store, in preference to others, I do not doubt; but we do not muster money in Cincinnati.

There is a large body of abolitionists in Clinton and Clark Counties in this state, and in Wayne County Indiana, that would undoubtedly support such a store, but whether their support would be sufficient, I am unable to say.

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself.

Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.

I use the rules to frustrate the law. But I didn't set up the ground rules.

Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.