“And that heart which was a wild garden was given to him who only loved trim lawns. And the imbecile carried the princess into slavery.”

“The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching,' he said. 'The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.”

“We could watch the madmen, on clement days, sauntering and skipping among the trim gravel walks and pleasantly planted lawns; happy collaborationists who had given up the unequal struggle, all doubts resolved, all duty done, the undisputed heirs-at-law of a century of progress, enjoying the heritage at their ease.”

“Someday all the wilds will be razed, and we will be left with a concrete landscape, a land of pretty houses and trim gardens and planned parks and forests, and a world that works as smoothly as a clock, neatly wound: a world of metal and gears, and people going tick-tick-tick to their deaths.”

“My mother had soft hands that smelled like soap, and a smile like the first bit of sunlight creeping over a trimmed lawn.”