"Most of us rather like our cats to have a streak of wickedness. I should not feel quite easy in the company of any cat that walked about the house with a saintly expression."

"Being a bachelor is the first requisite of the man who wishes to form an ideal home."

"Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose."

"Do you not realize that the whole thing is miraculous? It is exactly as though your were to cut off your wife's leg, stick it in the lawn, and be greeted on the following day by an entirely new woman, sprung from the leg, advancing across the lawn to meet you. Surely, you would be surprised if, having snipped off your little finger, and pushed it into a flower pot, you were to find a miniature edition of yourself in the flower pot a day later."

"To dig in one's own earth, with one's own spade, does life hold anything better?"

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."

"It is only to the gardener that time is a friend, giving each year more than he steals."