Chiswick House

A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.

(Frank Lloyd Wright)

It seems a paradox, but nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

(John Ruskin)

Hastings

Whenever I find myself growing green about the mouth; whenever it is a damp and drizzly november in my soul; and especially whenever it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from knocking peoples hats off-then, I account it high time to set to sea. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree cherish very nearly the same feelings toward the ocean with me.

(Herman Melville. Moby Dick)

Give a man a fish ,and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish.

(Unknown)

Great Dixter

Christo was regularly to be seen on his knees in the garden. Most visitors would ask the usual questions-how many staff, how long does it take to clip the hedges, isn't it a lot of work? - and the questions had more to do with speaking to the owner than seriously wanting information. If Christo thought a question worthwhile he would answer it tantalisingly well. If he thought it was a lazy question, he would snap, whence his reputation for being as bad tempered as his dachshunds.

(Christopher Lloyd. His life at Great Dixter. Stephen Anderton)

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden".

(Thomas Jefferson)