Where you tend a rose, my lad,A thistle cannot grow.
Frances Hodgson BurnettThe Secret Garden, 1911 · Chapter XXVII: In the Garden
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Where you tend a rose, my lad,A thistle cannot grow.
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Frances Hodgson Burnett died in 1924, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1911. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever.
Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.
It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.
I wandered lonely as a CloudThat floats on high o'er Vales and Hills,When all at once I saw a crowdA host of dancing Daffodills;Along the Lake, beneath the trees,Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.The waves beside them danced, but theyOutdid the sparkling waves in glee:—A Poet could not but be gayIn such a laughing company:I gaz'd—and gaz'd—but little thoughtWhat wealth the shew to me had brought:For oft when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude,And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the Daffodils.
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
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