On academic qualifications:
“I like the man who has an incomplete course... . If the man has acquired a power for work, a capacity for initiative and investigation, an enthusiasm for the daily life his incompleteness is his strength. How much there is before him! How eager his eyes! How enthusiastic his temper! He is a man with a point of view, not a man with mere facts. This man will see first big and significant things; he will grasp relationships; he will correlate; later he will consider the details.” (p.52, LHB)
On progress:
“Is there any progress in horticulture? If not, it is dead, uninspiring. We cannot live in the past, good as it is; we must draw our inspiration from the future.” (p.71, LHB)
On passion:
“We must tell it to the world that the higher education is necessary to the best agriculture. We must tell our friends of our enthusiasm for the generous life of the country. We must say that we believe in our ability to make good use of every lesson which the University has given us. We must say to every man that our first love is steadfast, our hopes are high, and our enthusiasm is great. Our hearts are so full that we must celebrate.” (p.73, LHB)
On having the right attitude:
“There are two essential epochs in any enterprise: to begin, and to get done.” (p.78, LHB)
“One does not begin to make a garden until he wants a garden. To want a garden is to be interested in plants, in the winds and rains, in birds and insects, in the warm-smelling earth.” (p.81, LHB)
On planning:
“A garden is half-made when it is well planned. The best gardener is the one who does the most gardening by the winter fire.” (p.82, LHB)
On cultivating interest:
“Give the children an opportunity to make garden. Let them grow what they will. It matters less that they grow good plants than that they try for themselves.” (p.82, LHB)
On rewards:
“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” (p.83, LHB)
On the joys of gardening:
“If today you care only for pinks and roses and other prim garden flows, next year you will also admire the wild convolvulus on the old fence and the winter stalks of the sunflower. There are times and seasons for all plants. One’s sympathies are wide, as one’s life is full and resourceful.” (p.83, LHB)
On learning and education:
“The name of the subject is not fundamentally important. All subjects may be made the means of developing a man. What we call “culture” is not the result of a line of study, so much as the result of association with educated and sensitive persons. A well educated mind has a broad outlook. It develops beyond the specialist to the philosopher... . We are learning that no subjects are unclean.” (p.104, LHB)
On extension:
“Extension work is not exhortation. Nor is it exploitation of the people, or advertising of an institution, or publicity work for securing students. It is a plain, earnest, and continuous effort to meet the needs of the people on their own farms and in the localities.” (p.108, LHB)
On the land-grant mission:
“We accept it because we have seen the vision. We know that we cannot reap the harvest, but we hope that we may so well prepare the land and so diligently sow the seed that our successors may gather the ripened grain.” (p.134, LHB)
“This College of Agriculture was not established to serve or to magnify Cornell University. It belongs to the people of the State... . The farmers of the State have secured it... . Their influence has placed it here. They will keep it close to the ground... . If there is any man standing on the land, unattached, uncontrolled, who feels that he has a disadvantages and a problem, this College of Agriculture stands for that man.” (p.134, LHB)
On scientific rigor and inquisitiveness:
“Fact is not to be worshipped. The life which is devoid of imagination is dead; it is tied to the earth. There need be no divorce of fact and fancy; they are only the poles of experience. What is called the scientific method is only imagination set within bounds... . Facts are bridged by imagination. They are tied together by the thread of speculation. The very essence of science is to reason from the known to the unknown.” (pp.135-6, LHB)
On Ag college graduates:
“Even though the college man raises no more wheat than his neighbor, he will have more satisfaction raising it. He will know why he turns the clod; he will challenge the worm that burrows in the furrow; his eyes will follow the field mouse that scuds under the grass; he will see the wild fowl winging its way across the heaven. All these things will add to the meaning of life and they are his.” (p.141, LHB)
On the greatness of humility:
“Humble is the grass in the field, yet it has noble relations. All the bread grains are grass — wheat and rye, barley, sorghum, and rice; maize, the great staple of America; millet, oats, and sugar cane. Other things have their season but the grass is of all seasons ... the common background on which the affairs of nature and man are conditioned and displayed.” (p.192, LHB)
This compilation of LHB quotations was taken from the book Liberty Hyde Bailey: An Informal Biography (LHB) by Philip Dorf (1956) and The Spreader: LHB Centennial Edition (Spreader) (March 1958). Compiled by Kelvin Tan.