Quotes by Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
I have no patience with the doctrine of pure science, that science is science only when it is uncontaminated by application in the arts of life; and I also have no patience with the spirit that considers a piece of work to be legitimate only as it has direct bearing on the arts and affairs of men.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
It is a marvelous planet on which we ride. It is a great privilege to live thereon, to partake in the journey, and to experience its goodness. We may cooperate rather than rebel. We should try to find the meanings rather than to be satisfied only with the spectacles. My life has been a continuous fulfillment of dreams.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
One never makes the quest unless the mind is open at the start. Herein does this mind differ from the advocate who must prove a case, from that of a preacher who must support a dogma, from that of the politician who must defend a party, from that of an organization that must enforce a policy. There are no parties in science.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
Take out of nationalism the blind prejudice, the over-organization, the self-interest for territory and for gold, and you remove its fangs. You then have left a political system for common betterment, a community of ideals, concrete enthusiasms, a means of effective training, racial and geographical cohesions, and programs to direct the lives of the people.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
The sense of conquest is in it. Not often is a collector able to obtain complete material in one assault. The plant may be at the moment sterile, or only in fruit or flower... but this lack has the advantage of stimulating the collector to go back in another season or year to complete the work.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
To people who grumbled at the weather he recommended a garden, as the best of remedies for that commonest of melancholies, for there is no weather that did not suit some plant. In the hottest and driest time the portulacas are burning red in the sand. In cool and cloudy weather the soft morning-glories remain open until noon. When the soil is soaked with rain the irises are in their glory.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
We are now devoting ourselves to science. I am afraid some of us feel that science will give us final solutions - better bases for philosophy, an ideal groundwork for satisfactions, for enjoyment. But it is doubtful whether the mind of man can ever understand the universe. For every puzzle that we uncover and solve, two more appear that were hidden.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey
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.
– Liberty Hyde Bailey