The Plainest Weeds

"The fastidious habits of polished life generally incline us to reject, as incapable of interesting us, whatever does not present itself in a graceful shape of its own, and a ready-made suit of ornaments. But some of the plainest weeds become beautiful under the microscope. it is the benevolent provision of nature, that in proportion as you feel the necessity of extracting interest from common things, you are enabled to do so."

Leigh Hunt "On Washerwomen"

The Infinite Suggestiveness

"The essay-writer has no lack of subject-matter. He has the day that is passing over his head; and, if unsatisfied with that, he has the world's six thousand years to depasture his gay or serious humour upon. I idle away my time here, and I am finding new subjects every hour. Everything I see of hear is an essay in bud. The world is everywhere whispering essays, and one need only be the world's amanuensis."

-Alexander Smith, trepverter,l'esprit de l'escalier (The Infinite Suggestiveness)
Taken from Patrick Madden's essay in Quotidiana