Hal Borland Quote

There are no idealists in the plant world and no compassion. The rose and the morning glory know mercy. Bindweed, the morning glory, will quickly choke its competitors to death, and the fencerow rose will just as quietly crowd out any other plant that tried to share its roothold. Idealism and mercy are human terms and human concepts.

Book of Days, 22 July 1976 (pp. 188-189)