Cactus Quotes:

Adolescence is like cactus.

- Anais Nin

topic: Cactus, Adolescence

It is only the story...that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence.The story is our escort;without it,we are blind.Does the blind man own his escort?No,neither do we the story;rather,it is the story that owns us.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Men, Doe, Cactus, Progeny

I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert.

- Demetri Martin

topic: Flower, Desert, Cactus, Nurturing

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point - a cactus, not a cushion

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

topic: Cactus, Starting, Cushions

What is the difference between a cactus and a conservative caucus? On a cactus, the ***** are on the outside.

- John Diefenbaker

topic: Differences, Cactus, Politics, Caucus

Being negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don't have to sit on it.

- Joyce Meyer

topic: Journey, Negative, Cactus, Difficult Journeys

I'm like the trunk of a cactus... I take in a dose of culture and time with friends, then I retreat and go live on it for awhile until I get thirsty again.

- Nancy Horan

source: Nancy Horan (2007). “Loving Frank: A Novel”, p.16, Ballantine Books

topic: Retreat, Culture, Cactus, Times With Friends

Many of the Huichols and North American peyotists claim that when one eats peyote, one is "tasting oneself: if the user is pure, this cactus is "sweet." Barbara Myerhoff, accompanying the Huichols during their 1965 and 1966 hunts, recorded that they urge new participants to "Chew it well. It is sweet, like tortillas.

- Peter Stafford

source: Peter Stafford (2013). “Psychedelics Encyclopedia”, p.133, Ronin Publishing

topic: Sweet, Cactus, Peyote, Tortillas

The one thing that seems to be consistent through all my work that I like, and I experimented a lot, is the viewer is allowed to meditate on something that normally we don't stop and stare at, whether it's people or a cactus.

- Richard Misrach

topic: Photography, People, Cactus

Wilf: God bless the cactuses! The Doctor: That's cactI. Alien: And that's racist!

- Russell T Davies

topic: Doctors, Cactus, Racist

The world is full of cactus, but we don't have to sit on it

- Will Foley

topic: Business, Cactus, World, Great Positive Attitude, Positive Thinking Attitude

The Big Cactus. I will stick you.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Cactus, Sticks

The Big Cactus... because if you come too close, you're gonna get stuck.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Cactus, Bigs

I consider it the highest compliment when my employees go out and start their own companies in competition with me. I always send them a plant to wish them well. Of course, it's a cactus.

- Unknown

topic: Cactus

Reach for the stars, even if you have to stand on a cactus.

- Unknown

topic: Cactus

Texas is a hell hole, man. Dirt, cactus, lizards, dirt, cactus, the Bush family.

- Christopher Titus

source: "5th Annual End of the World Tour". www.imdb.com. 2007.

topic: Men, Texas, Cactus

I'm always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding.

- Takashi Murakami

source: Interview with Alison Gingeras, www.interviewmagazine.com. July 15, 2010.

topic: Lotuses, Cactus, Plant

Thanks a heap coyote ugly. This cactus-gram stings worse than your abandonment.

- Diablo Cody

source: "Juno". www.imdb.com. 2007.

topic: Coyotes, Cactus, Ugly, Coyote Ugly

People trample over flowers, yet only to embrace a cactus.

- James Joyce

topic: Flower, People, Cactus

Take the rose—most people think it very beautiful: I don’t care for It at all. I prefer the cactus, for the simple reason that it has a more interesting personality. It has wonderfully adapted itself to its surroundings! It is the best illustration of the theory of evolution in plant life.

- Charles Proteus Steinmetz

topic: Beautiful, Simple, Thinking, Interesting Personalities, Cactus

Don't jack off a cactus, you'll only hurt your hand and the cactus' feelings

- Tre Cool

topic: Hurt, Hands, Feelings, Cactus

She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a cork board like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.

- Jerry Spinelli

topic: Flower, Butterfly, Mind, Cactus, Elusive

Loving someone who doesn't love you back is like hugging a cactus. The tighter you hold on, the more it's going to hurt.

- Unknown

topic: Hurt, Love You, Loving Someone, Cactus

Focusing on the negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult

- TobyMac

topic: Journey, Negative, Difficult, Cactus, Difficult Journeys

I'm an observer of life. I like to watch people, and I like to watch cactus. I like to talk to mountains and communicate with my friends in the other spheres and dimensions.

- Frederick Lenz

topic: People, Mountain, Watches, Cactus

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. ... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus.

- Enid Bagnold

topic: Flower, Writing, Oddities, Cactus

A whale is as unique as a cactus. But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley. We all have special gifts. Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something.

- Max De Pree

topic: Unique, Whales, Diversity, Special Gifts, Cactus

I remember very clearly someone saying, 'Don't shake hands with the cactus,' and I thought, 'Well, why not? What could possibly go wrong?' Shaking hands is a friendly gesture.

- Benedict Cumberbatch

topic: Hands, Friendly, Gestures, Cactus, Shaking Hands

The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love.

- Luther Burbank

topic: Love, Knowledge, Garden, Cactus, Scientific Knowledge

A creative person has to create. It doesn't really matter what you create. If such a dancer wanted to go out and build the cactus gardens where he could, in Mexico, let him do that, but something that is creative has to go on.

- Katherine Dunham

topic: Art, Garden, Dancer, Cactus

I want my body to help fertilize the growth of a cactus or cliff rose or sagebrush or tree.

- Edward Abbey

topic: Rose, Tree, Growth, Cactus

I’m erased. I’m gone. I’m nothing. And then the world is free to flow into me like water into an empty bowl…. And… I see. I hear. But not with eyes and ears. I’m not outside my world anymore, and I’m not really inside it either. The thing is, there’s no difference between me and the universe. The boundary is gone. I am it and it is me. I am a stone, a cactus thorn. I am rain. I like that most of all, being rain.

- Jerry Spinelli

source: Jerry Spinelli (2011). “Stargirl”, p.83, Hachette UK

topic: Life, Rain, Eye, Cactus, Stargirl

Rearing three children is like growing a cactus, a gardenia, and a tubful of impatiens. Each needs varying amounts of water, sunlight and pruning. Were I to be absolutely fair, I would have to treat each child as if he or she were absolutely identical to the other siblings, and there would be no profit for anyone in that.

- Phyllis Grissim-Theroux

topic: Children, Sibling, Water, Pruning, Cactus

The canyon country does not always inspire love. To many it appears barren, hostile, repellent - a fearsome mostly waterless land of rock and heat, sand dunes and quicksand, cactus, thornbrush, scorpion, rattlesnake, and agaraphobic distances. To those who see our land in that manner, the best reply is, yes, you are right, it is a dangerous and terrible place. Enter at your own risk. Carry water. Avoid the noonday sun. Try to ignore the vultures. Pray frequently.

- Edward Abbey

topic: Country, Distance, Land, Cactus, Inspire Love

My dad is like a cactus - introverted and tough. I'm a people person, like my mom, but I got my competitiveness from my dad. He came to this country from Belarus with nothing and built a real business. He's my hero for giving me that need to run a business and for having enormous confidence in me.

- Gary Vaynerchuk

topic: Mom, Running, Country, Cactus, Belarus

In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll begin to see something, maybe. Probably not.

- Edward Abbey

source: Edward Abbey (1968). “Desert Solitaire”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

topic: Nature, Blood, Hands, Cactus, Sandstone

The desert seems to be a brown wasteland of dry, prickly scrub whose only purpose is to serve as a setting for the majestic saguaros. Then, little by little, the plants of the desert begin to identify themselves: the porcupiny yucca, the beaver tail and prickly pear and barrel cacti, buckhorn and staghorn and devil's fingers, the tall, sky-reaching tendrils of the ocotillo.

- Jerry Spinelli

source: Jerry Spinelli (2012). “The Stargirl Collection”, p.60, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Sky, Devil, Dry, Wasteland, Cactus

You can't learn anything from saguaro cactus, from ocotillo. They are just passing through; their roots, their much heralded dormancy in the dry season, these are only illusions of permanence. They know even less than you do.

- Barry Lopez

topic: Educational, Roots, Dry, Cactus, Passing Through

Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.

- Richard Hammond

source: "Mexican anger over BBC 'feckless, lazy' claims" by Simon Hooper, www.cnn.com. February 2, 2011.

topic: Car, Mexican, Lazy, Feckless, Cactus

You told us to leave you in the desert, because you planned to start a new life as cactus," Catarina said, her voice flat. "Then you conjured up tiny needles and threw them at us. With pinpoint accuracy.

- Cassandra Clare

source: Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson (2015). “The Bane Chronicles”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

topic: Voice, New Life, Desert, Cactus

What are plants doing? What are plants all about? They serve human beings by being decorative, but what is it from its own point of view? It's using up air; it's using up energy. It's really not doing anything except being ornamental. And yet here's this whole vegetable world, cactus plants, trees, roses, tulips, and edible vegetables, like cabbages, celery, lettuce - they're all doing this dance.

- Alan Watts

source: Alan Watts (1977). “The essence of Alan Watts”, Celestial Arts Publishing Company

topic: Life, Views, Vegetables, Celery, Lettuce

I had forgotten that talking to you is like trying to pet a cactus." Saiman said dryly. "Thank you for reminding me." "Always happy to oblige.

- Ilona Andrews

source: Ilona Andrews (2013). “Magic Rises: A Kate Daniels Novel”, p.47, Penguin

topic: Talking, Pet, Trying, Cactus, Reminding

Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.

- Rick Riordan

source: Rick Riordan (2006). “The lightning thief”

topic: Running, People, Naked, Cactus, Hellhounds

When I write "paradise" I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes - disease and death and the rotting of flesh.

- Edward Abbey

topic: Mean, Writing, Earthquakes, Disease And Death, Cactus

In the Middle Ages people took potions for their ailments. In the 19th century they took snake oil. Citizens of today's shiny, technological age are too modern for that. They take antioxidants and extract of cactus instead.

- Charles Krauthammer

source: "The Return of the Primitive" by Charles Krauthammer, content.time.com. January 29, 1996.

topic: Snakes, Oil, People, Cactus, Antioxidants

Isn’t that why you have that gun mounted on the front? Or is it for other reasons, because I would’ve thought that a man with your powers would be past the urge to compensate.” Barabas grinned. “I had forgotten that talking to you is like trying to pet a cactus,” Saiman said dryly. “Thank you for reminding me.” “Always happy to oblige.

- Ilona Andrews

source: Ilona Andrews (2013). “Magic Rises: A Kate Daniels Novel”, p.47, Penguin

topic: Gun, Past, Men, Cactus

That cactus went right through my eye. It left my eye flat. They took me to a doctor, and he said, 'We'll have to take the eye out.' ...I fought like a tiger. I said, 'No! Leave the eye alone. I am sure it will grow back.' The doctor said, 'You're too young to know.' ...But in a year's time that fluid came back, and that eye is just as good as the other one today.

- Bernard Jensen

topic: Eye, Dark, Years, Cactus, Through My Eyes

These Germans seem an odd race, a mixture of clay and spirit - what with their beer-drinking and smoking, and their slow, stolid ways, you would think them perfectly earth; but ethereal fire is all the while working in them, and bursing out in most unexpected jets of poetry and sentiment, like blossoms on a cactus.

- Harriet Beecher Stowe

topic: Drinking, Beer, Thinking, Cactus, Smoking And Drinking

The name says it all. That's where Dad (Hades) tries out his new punishment ideas, but he says the traditional ones still work best: the lava flows, the minefields full of exploding surprises, burning at the stake, running naked through cactus patches... You name it, we've got it here - Nico di Angelo

- Rick Riordan

topic: Running, Dad, Punishment, Cactus, Burning At The Stake

Flailing and thrashing, Buttercup wept and tossed and paced and wept some more, and there have been three great cases of jealousy since David of Galilee was first afflicted with the emotion when he could no longer stand the fact that his neighbor Saul's cactus outshone his own. (Originally, jealousy pertained solely to plants, other people's cactus or ginkgoes, or, later, when there was grass, grass, which is why, even to this day, we say that someone is green with jealousy.) Buttercup's case rated a close fourth on the all-time list. It was a very long and very green night.

- William Goldman

source: William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride: An Illustrated Edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure”, p.53, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Night, Long, People, Flailing, Cactus

Anyone can win a slam-dunk contest. The real Superman is dead. He was assassinated by Pat Riley. I'm the Big Cactus now and ready to roll again.

- Shaquille O'Neal

topic: Basketball, Real, Winning, Cactus, Slam Dunk