Quotations about Flowers I

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858


Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"


I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman


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 Fairly Honourable Defeat


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


I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"


The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. ~Basho


To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat. ~Beverly Nichols


Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844


A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. ~Walt Whitman


'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!
~William Wordsworth, "Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798


The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. ~Tennessee Williams


Flowers are without hope. Because hope is tomorrow and flowers have no tomorrow. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


Break open a cherry tree and there are no flowers, but the spring breeze brings forth myriad blossoms. ~Ikkyu Sojun


Perfumes are the feelings of flowers. ~Heinrich Heine, The Hartz Journey


Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there.
~Francis Thompson, "The Poppy," 1891


How can one help shivering with delight when one's hot fingers close around the stem of a live flower, cool from the shade and stiff with newborn vigor! ~Colette


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


Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin


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