.

.

Flowers have a very special place in our hearts

• The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. Gertrude S. Wister
• Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. Walt Whitman
• Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers? Maurice Maeterlinck
• What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome.  Are not flowers the stars of the earth?  And are not our stars the flowers of heaven?  Clara Balfour
• More than anything, I must have flowers, always, always. Claude Monet
• Nature,  Beauty,  Wonder,  Spring

.

Flowers are the souls of nature

• Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. Henry Beecher
• Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Gerard de Nerval
• Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Each flower is a soul opening out to nature. Gerald De Nerval
• A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even on solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it. Vita Sackville-West
• The soul,  Nature

.

Flowers are nature’s poetry

• The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.  Jean Giraudoux

.

Flowers are nature’s perfume

• To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat. Beverly Nichols
• Perfumes are the feelings of flowers, and as the human heart, imagining itself alone and unwatched, feels most deeply in the night-time, so seems it as if the flowers, in musing modesty, await the mantling eventide ere they give themselves up wholly to feeling, and breathe forth their sweetest odours. Flow forth, ye perfumes of my heart, and seek beyond these mountains the dear one of my dreams! Heinrich Heine
• A flower’s fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.  We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.  Diane Ackerman
• Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them. Chinese proverb

.

Flowers are the wealth of nature

• What riches are ours in the world of nature, from the majesty of the distant peak to the fragile beauty of a tiny flower, and all without cost to us, the beholders! No person is poor who has watched a sunrise or who keeps a mountain in his or her heart.  Esther Baldwin York
• Good heavens, of what uncostly material is our earthly happiness composed… if we only knew it. What incomes have we not had from a flower, and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons.  James Russell Lowell
• The flowers are nature’s jewels, with whose wealth she decks her summer beauty. George Croly
• He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul. Celia Thaxter
• True wealth

.

What more do we need than flowers at our feet?

• The best things in life are the nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Robert Lewis Stevenson
• A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars. Victor Hugo
• In the hope of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet. Albert Schweitzer
• Just living is not enough … One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.  Hans Christian Anderson

.

Flower’s are the sweetest thing God ever made

• I hope someday to meet God, because I want to thank Him for the flowers. Robert Brault
• Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. Henry Beecher
• The amen of Nature is always a flower. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• The lily was created on the third day, early in the morning when the Almighty was especially full of good ideas. Michael Jefferson-Brown
• God

.

Flowers make us happy, joyful and peaceful

• With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy? Oscar Wilde
• With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy. Lope de Vega
• When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. Chinese Proverb
• People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. Iris Murdoch
• A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. Walt Whitman
• Flowers really do intoxicate me. Vita Sackville-West
• Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind.  They dissolve its vigor.  Henry Ward Beecher
• Like the musician, the painter, the poet, and the rest, the true lover of flowers is born, not made. And he is born to happiness in this vale of tears, to a certain amount of the purest joy that earth can give her children, joy that is tranquil, innocent, uplifting, unfailing.  Celia Thaxter
• Happiness,  Joy,  Inner peace

.

Flowers refresh the mind and gladden the heart

• To such as these we offer, with some confidence, and with no little sympathy, our collection of choice flowers, culled from the gardens of Poesy: may they refresh the mind, and gladden the heart, and beautify the path, of many a careworn toiler in the fields of labour, of whatsoever kind. H.G. Adams
• To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life. John Burroughs
• The mind, The heart

.

Flowers feed the soul

• Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul. Luther Burbank
• Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. Prophet Muhammad
• Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. Orison Swett Marden
• The soul

.

Flowers provide solace in gloomy times

• Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. John Ruskin
• Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, sombre skies blanket our thoughts. Dodinsky
• In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends. Kozuko Okakura
• Where flowers bloom so does hope. Lady Bird Johnson

.

Flowers connect us

• Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes. Clare Ansberry
• In the cherry blossom’s shade there’s no such thing as a stranger. Issa
• Connection,  Connectedness

.

Wild flowers are the best

• For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses!  Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!  Edward Abbey
• None can have a healthy love for flowers unless he loves the wild ones. Forbes Watson

.

Each flower has its own expression

• Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. Henry Ward Beecher

.

.

Rejoice in the blooming of flowers and your soul will bloom too

• In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.  Aldo Leopold
• If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. Terri Guillemets

.

Be sure to smell flowers along the way

• You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Walter C. Hagen
• The world is a rose; smell it and pass it to your friends. Persian Proverb

.

Open your eyes to flowers

• There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse

.

Let flowers speak to you

• Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.  Lydia M. Child

.

Really look deeply into a flower …

• When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for that moment. Georgia O’Keeffe
• When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. It ‘inter-is’ with everything else in the universe. Thich Nhat Hahn
• I will take time each day to commune with nature and to silently witness the intelligence within every living thing. I will sit silently and watch a sunset or listen to the sound of the ocean or a stream, or simply smell the scent of a flower. Deepak Chopra
• Contemplating a flower for three seconds can be a captivating solitary journey back to original geometry, which is always revitalizing. Henry Skolimowski
• Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn’t room for any other thought. Sophie Scholl
• “When at last I took the time to look into the heart of a flower, it opened up a whole new world; a world where every country walk would be an adventure, where every garden would become an enchanted one. Princess Grace of Monaco

.

… without rushing …

• Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. Georgia O’Keeffe

.

… without needing to label it or be scientific …

• You must not know too much, or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and water-craft; a certain free margin, and even vagueness – perhaps ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things… Walt Whitman
• We are so impressed by scientific clank that we feel we ought not to say that the sunflower turns because it knows where the sun is. It is almost second nature to us to prefer explanations with a large vocabulary. We are much more comfortable when we are assured that the sunflower turns because it is heliotropic. The trouble with that kind of talk is that it tempts us to think that we know what the sunflower is up to. But we don’t. The sunflower is a mystery, just as every single thing in the universe is. Robert Farrer Capon
• Let go of the need to label

.

… without engaging the intellectual mind

• Thoughts can create such a barrier that even if you are standing before a beautiful flower, you will not be able to see it. Your eyes are covered with layers of thought. To experience the beauty of the flower you have to be in a state of meditation, not in a state of mentation. You have to be silent, utterly silent, not even a flicker of thought – and the beauty explodes, reaches to you from all directions. You are drowned in the beauty of a sunrise, of a starry night, of beautiful trees. Osho
• Many people are so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature does not really exist for them. They might say, “What a pretty flower,” but that’s just a mechanical mental labelling. Because they are not still, not present, they don’t truly see the flower, don’t feel it’s essence, it’s holiness- just as they don’t know themselves, don’t feel their own essence, their own holiness. Eckhart Tolle
• To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy than to attempt to understand. Henry T. Tuckerman
• Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn’t room for any other thought. Sophie Scholl.

.

In this way, really see the miracle of a flower

• If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change. Buddha
• See life as a miracles

.

Look deeply enough into a flower and you’ll see God there

• True success is therefore the experience of the miraculous. It is the unfolding of the divinity within us. It is the perception of divinity wherever we go, in whatever we perceive — in the eyes of a child, in the beauty of a flower, in the flight of a bird. Deepak Chopra
• To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, An eternity in an hour. William Blake
• Today, Creator of the Universe, we ask that you open our heart and open our eyes, so we can enjoy all of your creations and live in eternal love with you… Let us perceive with eyes of love so that we find you wherever we go and see you in everything you create. Let us see you in every cell of our body, in every emotion of our mind, in every dream, in every flower, in every person we meet. Don Miguel Ruiz
• There is in all our strivings a profound homesickness for God. When we touch another we touch God.  When we look at a flower, its radiance, its fragrance, its stillness is another moment’s experience of something deeper within.  When we hold a baby, when we hear extraordinary music, when we look into the eyes of a great saint, what draws us is that deep homesickness for our true nature, for the peace and healing that is our birthright.  This homesickness for God directs us toward the healing we took birth for.  Stephen Levine
• God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. Martin Luther
• For the Infinite has sowed his name in the heavens in burning stars, but on the earth, he has sowed his name in tender flowers.  Jean Paul Richter
• Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you, root and all, in my hand, Little flower–but if I could understand What you are, root and all and all in all, I should know what God and man is. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Every flower of the field, every fiber of a plant, every particle of an insect, carries with it the impress of its Maker, and can – if duly considered – read us lectures of ethics or divinity. Thomas Blount
• Even if you think the Big Bang created the stars, don’t you wonder who sent the flowers? Robert Brault
• Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it and let it be without imposing a word or mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you. Eckhart Tolle
• There is not the least flower but seems to hold up its head, and to look pleasantly, in the secret sense of the goodness of its Heavenly Maker. Robert South
• I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it.  Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Every rose is an autograph from the hand of God on his world about us. He has inscribed his thoughts in these marvellous hieroglyphics which sense and science have, these many thousand years, been seeking to understand.  Theodore Parker
• God

.

Let flowers inspire your creativity

• The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.  Auguste Rodin
• I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. Claude Monet
• Creativity

.

Give the gift of a flower

• Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart – a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water – I accept with joy. Bhagavad Gita
• Wherever I go, and whoever I encounter, I will bring them a gift. The gift may be a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Deepak Chopra
• The essence of generosity is letting go. Pain is always a sign that we are holding on to something – usually ourselves. When we feel unhappy, when we feel inadequate, we get stingy; we hold on tight. Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can – a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement – we are training in letting go. Pema Chodron
• Flowers and fruits are always fit presents, — flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Giving

.

Enjoy flowers without needing to pick them

• I will be the gladdest thing Under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers And not pick one. Edna St. Vincent Millay
• Pluck not the wayside flower; It is the traveler’s dower. William Allingham

.

.

Flowers have much to teach

• If you would attain to your highest, go look upon a flower; what the flower does willessly, that do willingly. Johann von Schiller
• Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the color or scent of the flowers, so should the sage act in a village. Dhammapada

.

Flowers teach us about impermanence

• Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind. William Wordsworth
• All things in nature work silently. They come into being and possess nothing. They fulfill their function and make no claim.  All things alike do their work, and then we see them subside.  When they have reached their bloom, each returns to its origin. . . . This reversion is an eternal law. To know that law is wisdom.  Lao Tzu
• Flowers whisper “Beauty!” to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall. SunWolf
• These flowers will be rotten in a couple hours. Birds will crap on them. The smoke here will make them stink, and tomorrow a bulldozer will probably run over them, but for right now they are so beautiful. Chuck Palahniuk
• If there were nothing else to trouble us, the fate of the flowers would make us sad. John Lancaster Spalding
• I didn’t know the names of the flowers – now my garden is gone. Allen Ginsberg
• Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone: All her lovely companions Are faded and gone. Sir Thomas Moore
• In last night’s storm the beautiful blossoms all fell off. Ah!  What a shame.  When it rains for two or three days, again the weeds have grown up.  Oh, well.  Zen Master Hakuun Yasutani
• Impermanence

.

Flowers teach us humility

• Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower. Alan C. Kay
• There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords. John Muir
• As I hold the flower in my hand and think of trying to describe it, I realize how poor a creature I am, how impotent are words in the presence of such perfection. Celia Thaxter
• Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding. Marc Chagall
• Humility

.

Flowers teach us about stillness and being

• Nature – trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls. Wilbur Pierce
• Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness. Eckhart Tolle
• …just as a flower waits all its life for you to smell it…..or as the wind rustles through the trees so you can hear it….or as the rain drops itself against your cheek to taste it…..The Silence waits for your embrace. Susan Holden
• We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. Mother Teresa
• One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve. Henry David Thoreau
• Stillness,  Being

.

Flowers teach us to be serene

• Your own self-will and anxiety, your hurry and labor, disturb your peace and prevent Me from working in you. Look at the little flowers, in the serene summer days; they quietly open their petals, and the sun shines into them with its gentle influences.  So, I will do for you, if you will yield yourself to me.  Tersteegen
• Tranquility,  Calmness

.

Flowers teach us how to be happy

• Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy.  Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers – for no reason.  It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.  Osho
• And ’tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes. William Wordsworth
• A flower blossoms for its own joy. Oscar Wilde
• Happiness

.

Flowers teach us to be present

• Flowers are without hope. Because hope is tomorrow, and flowers have no tomorrow.  Antonio Porchia
• Presence

.

Flowers teach us not to worry or force things but to let things unfold

• Flowers don’t worry about how the’re going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.  Jim Carrey
• Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Jesus of Nazareth
• Don’t try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go.  See Spiritis opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds.  Bhagwan Shree Rayneesh
• Simply trust: Do not the petals flutter down, Just like this?
• Worry,  Going with the flow

.

Flowers teach us about beauty

• Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Beauty

.

.

Flowers make powerful metaphors

• Your anger is like a flower. In the beginning you may not understand the nature of your anger, or why it has come up. But if you know how to embrace it with the energy of mindfulness, it will begin to open. You may be sitting, following your breathing, or you may be practicing walking meditation to generate the energy of mindfulness and embrace your anger. After ten or twenty minutes your anger will have to open herself to you, and suddenly, you will see the true nature of your anger. It may have arisen just because of a wrong perception or the lack of skilfulness. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Words and thoughts concerning compassionate action that are not put into practice are like beautiful flowers that are colorful but have no fragrance. Thich Nhat Hanh
• When you wear the weed of impatience in your heart instead of the flower Acceptance-with-Joy, you will always find your enemies get an advantage over you. Hannah Hurnard
• What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. Joseph Addison
• The root of all health is in the brain. The trunk of it is in emotion. The branches and leaves are the body. The flower of health blooms when all parts work together. Kurdish Saying
• Metaphors to live by

.

We are flowers

• Your body is a flower that life let bloom…. Ilchi Lee

.

We are all flowers and the beauty of the garden lies in its diversity

• We are all flowers in the Great Spirit’s garden. We share a common root, and the root is Mother Earth.  The garden is beautiful because it has different colors in it, and those colors represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds. David Monongye
• There’s room for every flower – and one flower isn’t better than another.
• Diversity

.

Allow yourself to flower and bloom like a flower

• When I allow myself to be human and let go of my harsh judgements, I flower and bloom. My eyes are opened to my worth. Talents and gifts I never knew I had, begin to reveal themselves. Every part of me bathes in the warm glow of love and acceptance. John Kehoe
• We are the only species on earth capable of preventing our own flowering. David Whyte
• There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anaïs Nin
• Bloom where you are planted! Mary Engelbert

.

Allow others to bloom too

• The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. Thich Nhat Hanh

.

Like the flower, draw your energy from the soil and sun

• The flower that follows the sun does so even in cloudy days. Robert Leighton
• The flower draws its life energy from the soil and from the sun. We are very similar. We continuously receive energy from the earth through our feet and from the air. Energy is everywhere, like love. We just have to open ourselves up to receive it. Ratu Bagus
• The sun

.

Sow the seeds of flowers, especially in yourself

• We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy, and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all. Dorothy Day
• This very moment is a seed from which the flowers of tomorrow’s happiness grow. Margaret Lindsey
• The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody’s fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind. Katherine Mansfield
• You’re frustrated because you keep waiting for the blooming of flowers of which you have yet to sow the seeds. Steve Maraboli
• I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some. Herbert Rappaport
• If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars? K. Chesterton
• It will never rain roses. When we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.  George Eliot
• So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

.

The most beautiful flower is the one that blooms in adversity

• The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all. Walt Disney
• I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It’s so fuckin’ heroic. George Carlin
• Adversity

.

The flower of consciousness needs the mud of adversity out of which it grows

• The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one. Goldie Hawn
• The flower of consciousness needs the mud out of which it grows. Eckhart Tolle
• Without darkness, nothing comes to birth, As without light, nothing flowers. May Sarton
• Every Flower must grow through Dirt.
• You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it! Sai Baba
• Consciousness

.

.

Forsythia

• Forsythia is pure joy. There is not an ounce, not a glimmer of sadness or even knowledge in forsythia.  Pure, undiluted, untouched joy.  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

.

Lillies

• White … is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black … God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.  K. Chesterton.

.

Dandelions

• If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. Andrew Mason
• I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn.  H. Hudson

.

Violets

• The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. Tennessee Williams
• Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you. Edward Payson Rod

.

Roses

• I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. Emma Goldman
• A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true. Ray Evans
• A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring. William Carlos Williams
• What a lovely thing a rose is!… Our highest assurance of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. Arthur Conan Doyle
• What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
• From a thorn comes a rose, and from a rose comes a thorn. Greek Proverb
• He who wants a rose must respect the thorn. Persian Proverb
• The rose has thorns only for those who would gather it. Chinese proverb
• But ne’er the rose without the thorn. Robert Herrick
• We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. Abraham Lincoln
• Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.  Alphonse Karr
• Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses. Ovid
• I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice. Roland A. Beowne
• You love the roses–so do I. I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from off the shaken bush.  Why will it not?  Then all the valley would be pink and white and soft to tread on. They would fall as light as feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be like sleeping and yet waking, all at once.  George Eliot
• To create a little flower is the labor of ages. William Blake
• The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them.  There is simply the rose.  It is perfect in every moment of its existence.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• What a pity flowers can utter no sound! — A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle … oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be! Henry Ward Beecher
• God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December. James Matthew Barrie
• I haven’t much time to be fond of anything . . . But when I have a moment’s fondness to bestow, most times . . . the roses get it. William Wilkie Collins
• A garden of roses is a fragrant piece of heaven. A garden without roses is a sorry thing.  Matthew A. R. Bassity
• There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. Henri Matisse
• Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day – like writing a poem or saying a prayer. Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

.

.

Flowers and love

• Flowers are love’s truest language. Park Benjamin
• It is at the edge of a petal that love waits. William Carlos Williams
• In the language of flowers, the yellow rose means friendship, the red rose means love, and the orchid means business. E.C.McKenzie
• Life is the flower for which love is the honey. Victor Hugo
• Love

.

Flowers and the seasons

• Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. Albert Camus
• Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. Samuel Butler
• Seasons

.

• A pessimist is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for the coffin. Mencken
• A wedding is a funeral where you smell your own flowers. Eddie Cantor
• A wedding is just like a funeral except that you get to smell your own flowers. Grace Hansen
• Art: A border of flowers along the course of civilisation.   (Steffens Lincoln)
• At my age flowers scare me. George Burns
• Bulb: A potential flower buried in autumn never to be seen again. Henry Beard
• By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months. All is at last in balance and all is serene.  The gardener is usually dead, of course.  Henry Mitchell
• Confucius say a flower goes through much dirt before it blooms. Confucius
• Confucius say woman who is wallflower at party dandelion in bed. Confucius
• Did God who gave us flowers and trees Also provide the allergies? Y. Harburg
• For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant! Edward Abbey
• Georgette: Why do people always send flowers when someone passes on? Sue Ann: What would you suggest dear – fruit? Betty White
• I speak to my flowers. I’ve learned to speak fluent Geranium.
• I would have brung you flowers too but I read in a magazine that they suck up all the carbon monoxygen. Archie Bunker
• I’m the flower, you’re the bee. Why don’t you suck the sweet pollen right out of me?
• If flowers were boogers, I’d pick a few big ones and flick them on your grave. Jarod Kintz
• If it is not Valentine’s day and you see a man in a flower shop, you can probably start up a conversation by asking, ‘What did you do?’
• In the language of flowers, the yellow rose means friendship, the red rose means love, and the orchid means business. E.C.McKenzie
• Jack was so cheap that instead of bringing his date flowers he brought her seeds. George Burns
• Me: Real women don’t care about romantic clichés. My internal voice: Please buy me flowers, please buy me flowers, please buy me flowers.
• Money is a powerful aphrodisiac but flowers work almost as well. Robert Heinlein
• My fiancé and I are having a little disagreement; what I want is a big church wedding with bridesmaids and flowers and a no-expense-spared reception; what he wants is to break off our engagement. Sally Poplin
• On behalf of Barbara Rutledge and her family our sincere thanks to all those sending cards and flowers and contributing to the death of her husband. Church Bulletin
• Roses may say “I love you,” but the cactus says, “Fuck off.” Jarod Kintz
• Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough.  Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them.  Victoria Glendinning
• This spot is the sweetest I’ve seen in my life for it raises many flowers and covers my wife. Epitaph
• What kind of flowers do you never give on Valentine’s Day? Cauliflowers!
• When a husband brings his wife flowers for no reason there’s a reason. Molly McGee
• Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they’re killing living creatures?  Why restrict it to plants?  “Sweetheart, let’s make up.  Have this deceased squirrel.”  The Washington Post
• Why send roses? Wouldn’t it be more romantic to deliver a dozen orgasms? For only $19.95, I’ll deliver them to your woman any day of the year. But be sure to book early for Valentine’s Day. Jarod Kintz
• Won’t you come into my garden? I would like my roses to see you.  Richard Sheridan

.

.