"If there were as great a scarcity of soil as of jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers, and fine fruit."

Source: Galileo Galilei, Andrea Frova, Mariapiera Marenzana (2006). “Thus Spoke Galileo: The Great Scientist's Ideas and Their Relevance to the Present Day”, p.174, Oxford University Press