If the braine sowes not corne, it plants thistles.
Bear figs for a season or two, and the world outside the orchard is very unwilling you should bear thistles.
Nothing is less promising than precocity. A young thistle is more like a future tree than is a young oak.
Untilled soil, however fertile it may be, will bear thistles and thorns; so it is with man's mind.
Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.
Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.
The destroyer of weeds, thistles, and thorns is a benefactor whether he soweth grain or not.
It is easier to prevent thistles and habits than to uproot them.
