To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch their renewal of life—this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.

About Charles Dudley Warner

Charles Dudley Warner (September 12, 1829 – October 20, 1900) was an American essayist, novelist, and friend of Mark Twain, with whom he co-authored the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.

More quotations from Charles Dudley Warner

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

—Charles Dudley Warner

The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions.… Mud pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure. Fondness for the ground comes back to a man after he has run the round of pleasure and business,

—Charles Dudley Warner

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.

—Charles Dudley Warner

giving

A great artist can paint a great picture on a small canvas.

—Charles Dudley Warner

art painting

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.

—Charles Dudley Warner

health back gardening

More quotations tagged with “delight”

The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being, in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.

—Salman Rushdie

books art literature surprise delight liveliness

The world's as ugly as sin, and almost as delightful.

—Frederick Locker-Lampson

delight the world

Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight.

—Daniel Boone

wonder nature delight

Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.

—Milan Kundera

fear humility delight mysticism exaggeration

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch their renewal of life — this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.