The finest fruit earth holds up to its Maker is a finished…

Like a twisted olive tree in its 500th year, giving then its finest fruit, is man. How can he give forth wisdom until he…

— Rabbi Akiva

Government, religion, property, books, are nothing but the scaffolding to build men. Earth holds up to her master no fruit like the finished man.

— Wilhelm von Humboldt

The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The flowering of civilization is the finished man, the man of sense, of grace, of accomplishment, of social power--the gentleman.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The finished man of the world must eat of every apple once.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit,…

— Alice Walker

No fruit on earth can rival the cemetery's crop

— Jose Marti

Thus is the fruit of the Earth taken, its flesh torn. Thus is it given over standing, toward rot. It is the principle of…

— Richard Selzer

“Faith in God is the fruit of the earth.”

— Lailah Gifty Akita

“Love is the earth that holds our roots in place. Without it, there's nothing to keep us from falling over.”

— Saira Shah

“O'er thee, like thine own sea birds I'll circle without rest For me earth holds no corner To build a lasting nest.”

— Elisabeth of Austria

Deep under our feet the Earth holds its molten breath, while the bones of countless generations watch us and wait.

— Isaac Marion

But the Earth holds ghosts, even of entire nations.

— Alan Weisman

A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is…

— Walter Pater

A thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript…

— Carolyn Forche