10 of the best garden quotes

As the famous Roman statesman Cicero once said, 'if you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.' Here are a selection of garden quotes to fill you with inspiration for the great outdoors.

Published: July 8, 2020 at 1:39 pm

Need a boost to get out in the garden, come rain or shine? Here, a selection of famous names share their wisdom when it comes to gardening. From authors to painters, these quotes remind us how creative, meditative and restorative gardening can be.

For more on art and gardens, why not check out our piece focusing on artistic representations of gardens through the ages. And here is a chance to tour some of the world's best gardens from your sofa.

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in - what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.'

from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Gardening has this embracing quality in that it colours the way you look at the world.

from Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively (1933-)

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

― from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924)
Cothay Manor. Photo by Jason Ingram
Cothay Manor © Jason Ingram - http://© Jason Ingram

My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

I have seen women looking at jewellery ads with a misty eye and one hand resting on the heart, and I only know what they're feeling because that's how I read the seed catalogs in January.


― from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (1955-)
Blackland House
Blackland House © Jason Ingram

Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106BC-43BC)

He plants trees to benefit another generation.

Caecilius Statius (220BC-167BC)
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