Flower Quotes:

Lilacs, False Blue, White, Purple, Colour of lilac, Your great puffs of flowers Are everywhere in this my New England ... Lilacs in dooryards Holding quiet conversation with an early moon; Lilacs watching a deserted house; ... Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom, You are everywhere.

source: Amy Lowell (2009). “A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass”, p.9, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Dream, Flower, Heart, Petals

Oh! To be a flower Nodding in the sun, Bending, then upspringing As the breezes run.

source: Amy Lowell, “Lilacs”

topic: Spring, Flower, Moon, Deserted, Lilac

My words are little jars For you to take and put upon a shelf. Their shapes are quaint and beautiful, And they have many pleasant colours and lustres To recommend them. Also the scent from them fills the room With sweetness of flowers and crushed grasses.

topic: Running, Flower, Bending, Nodding

Oh! To be a butterfly Still, upon a flower, Winking with its painted wings, Happy in the hour.

source: Amy Lowell (2009). “Sword Blades and Poppy Seed”, p.57, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Beautiful, Flower, Rooms

Life is a stream On which we strew Petal by petal the flower of our heart.

source: Amy Lowell (2009). “A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass”, p.19, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Flower, Butterfly, Wings, Winking

My dream is for my flowers to act as beacons and rallying points across the planet - bringing people together on a global scale and through my art start a global conversation.

topic: Life, Flower, Heart

- Ana Tzarev

topic: Dream, Art, Flower, Rallying Point, Rallying

When I stand at the top of the Champs-ElysÃ©es, with its chestnut trees in flower, its undulations of shining cars, its white spaciousness, I feel as if I were biting into a utopian fruit, something velvety and lustrous and rich and vivid.

- Anais Nin

topic: Flower, Paris, White, Spaciousness, Chestnuts

I prefer by far the warmth and softness to mere brilliancy and coldness. Some people remind me of sharp dazzling diamonds. Valuable but lifeless and loveless. Others, of the simplest field flowers, with hearts full of dew and with all the tints of celestial beauty reflected in their modest petals.

- Anais Nin

topic: Love, Flower, Heart, Softness, Loveless

Saints are like trees. They do not call to anyone, neither do they send anyone away. They give shelter to whoever cares to come, be it a man, woman, child, or an animal. If you sit under a tree it will protect you from the weather, from the scorching sun as well as from the pouring rain, and it will give you flowers and fruit. Whether a human being enjoys them or a bird tastes of them matters little to the tree; its produce is there for anyone who comes and takes it.

- Anandamayi Ma

topic: Children, Rain, Flower, Pouring Rain, Protect You

All the arts are based on the presence of man, only photography derives an advantage from his absence. Photography affects us like a phenomenon in nature, like a flower or a snowflake whose vegetable or earthly origins are an inseparable part of their beauty.

- Andre Bazin

source: André Bazin (2005). “What is Cinema?”, p.13, Univ of California Press

topic: Photography, Art, Flower

I wished for nothing beyond her smile, and to walk with her thus, hand in hand, along a sun warmed, flower bordered path.

- Andre Gide

topic: Love, Flower, Hands, Her Smile, Mature Love

A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.

- Andre Maurois

topic: Song, Drama, Flower

I thought, "The flowers, save the flowers..." I never thought for a second we wouldn't save the people

- Andrea Gibson

topic: Flower, People

Fine fruit is the flower of commodities. It is the most perfect union of the useful and the beautiful that the earth knows. Trees full of soft foliage; blossoms fresh with spring bounty; and, finally, fruit, rich, bloom-dusted, melting, and luscious.

- Andrew Jackson Downing

topic: Beautiful, Spring, Flower, Foliage, Bounty

How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?

And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive) So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas! I find the serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold With wreaths of fame and interest.

topic: Sweet, Flower, Herbs

Had it lived long, is would have been Lilies without, roses within.

topic: Kings, Flower, Thinking

Gather the flowers, but spare the buds.

topic: Flower, Long, Rose

If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.

source: Andrew Marvell, Nigel Smith (2007). “The Poems of Andrew Marvell”, p.115, Pearson Education

topic: Flower, Bud, Moments

- Andrew Mason

source: Andrew V. Mason (2002). “And Or Love”, p.46, Trafford Publishing

topic: Flower, Would Be, Dandelions, Flowers Growing, Fragrant Flowers

Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world. If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.

- Andrew Mason

topic: Flower, Rays, Would Be, Rose Flower

The primary purpose of the Legislature in establishing "Arbor Day," was to develop and stimulate in the children of the Commonwealth a love and reverence for Nature as revealed in trees and shrubs and flowers. In the language of the statute, "to encourage the planting, protection and preservation of trees and shrubs" was believed to be the most effectual way in which to lead our children to love Nature and reverence Nature's God, and to see the uses to which these natural objects may be put in making our school grounds more healthful and at-tractive.

- Andrew S. Draper

topic: Children, Flower, School, Arbor Day, Arbors

If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.

- Andy Rooney

topic: Flower, Naps, Hands

I always notice flowers.

- Andy Warhol

topic: Flower

The rose has no 'Why?' It flowers because it flowers.

- Angelus Silesius

topic: Flower, Rose

This universe is a fan of you. Watch the flowers in the morning, how they open towards the same sun that spends it's whole day following you.

- Anis Mojgani

topic: Morning, Flower, Fans

In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither but the perfume lasted. Fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the lotus had blossomed, and its essence was released again, momentary but undeniable.

- Anita Diament

topic: Powerful, Flower, Garden, Musk

When a woman's face is wrinkled And her hairs are sprinkled, With gray, Lackaday! Aside she's cast, No one respect will pay; Remember, Lasses, remember. And while the sun shines make hay: You must not expect in December, The flowers you gathered in May.

- Ann Rinaldi

source: Ann Rinaldi (2004). “Or Give Me Death: A Novel of Patrick Henry's Family”, p.154, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Flower, Hair, Shining

Ingratitude is the frost that nips the flower even as it opens, that shrivels the generous apple on the branch, that freezes the fountain in mid-flow and numbs the hand, even in the very act of giving. It is a sin of silence, absence and omission, as winter's sin is a lack of light; a sin against charity, which otherwise warms the heart and, in the truest sense, makes the world turn.

- Ann Wroe

source: "Why the ‘My Job Is Harder’ Fight Isn’t a Battle You Want to Win" by Lisa Earle McLeod, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 29, 2014.

topic: Flower, Heart, Winter, Ingratitude

The life of the wood, meadow, and lake go on without us. Flowers bloom, set seed and die back; squirrels hide nuts in the fall and scold all year long; bobcats track the snowy lake in winter; deer browse the willow shoots in spring. Humans are but intruders who have presumed the right to be observers, and who, out of observation, find understanding.

- Ann Zwinger

source: Ann Zwinger (1970). “Beyond the Aspen Grove”, p.9, Big Earth Publishing

topic: Nature, Spring, Flower, Intruders, Blooming Flower

Dryness promotes the formation of flower buds...flowering is, after all, not an aesthetic contribution, but a survival mechanism.

- Ann Zwinger

topic: Flower, Acceptance, Survival

Flowers, cold from the dew, And autumn's approaching breath, I pluck for the warm, luxuriant braids, Which haven't faded yet. In their nights, fragrantly resinous, Entwined with delightful mystery, They will breathe in her springlike Extraordinary beauty. But in a whirlwind of sound and fire, From her shing head they will flutter And fallÂ—and before her They will die, faintly fragrant still. And, impelled by faithful longing, My obedient gaze will feast upon themÂ— With a reverent hand, Love will gather their rotting remains.

- Anna Akhmatova

topic: Flower, Fall, Autumn, Braids, Entwined

Fair, rich confusion is all the aim of an old-fashioned flower garden, and the greater the confusion, the richer. You want to come upon mignonnette in unexpected places, and to find sprays of heliotrope in close consultation with your roses, and geraniums sporting their uniforms like gay recruits off duty.

- Anna Bartlett Warner

source: Anna Bartlett Warner (1872). “Gardening by Myself”, p.64

topic: Flower, Gay, Garden, Spray, Consultation

Daffy-down-dilly came up in the cold, Through the brown mould Although the March breeze blew keen on her face, Although the white snow lay in many a place.

- Anna Bartlett Warner

source: Anna Bartlett Warner (1872). “Gardening by Myself”, p.38

topic: Flower, White, Snow

Fashion is everywhere. Everywhere! Flowers are fashion to me, the sky is fashion, my garden is fashion. My darling, the Sistine Chapel is fashion.

- Anna Dello Russo

topic: Fashion, Flower, Garden, Chapel, Sistine Chapel

A woman should be like a single flower, not a whole bouquet.

- Anna Held

topic: Flower, Bouquets, Should, Inspirational Flower

There is a land, where the roses are without thorns, where the flowers are not mixed with brambles. In that land, there is eternal spring, and light without any cloud. The tree of life groweth in the midst thereof; rivers of pleasures are there, and flowers that never fade. Myriads of happy spirits are there, and surround the throne of God with a perpetual hymn. The angels with their golden harps sing praises continually, and the cherubim fly on wings of fire! This country is Heaven...

- Anna Letitia Barbauld

source: Anna Letitia Barbauld (2001). “Anna Letitia Barbauld: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.310, Broadview Press

topic: Country, Spring, Flower, Never Fade, Happy Spirit

What, I sometimes wonder, would it be like if I lived in a country where winter is a matter of a few chilly days and a few weeks' rain; where the sun is never far away, and the flowers bloom all year long?

- Anna Neagle

topic: Country, Rain, Flower, Blooming Flower, Chilly

My field-mouse had made a set of brand-new tracks; here and there they etched themselves, following the brown flowers. It seemed as if uncommon spirits had seized their little maker, for sometimes he had leaped a yard, the festive mite! There was no other track pursuing; the leaps must have been mere joy.

- Anne Bosworth Greene

topic: Flower, Track, Joy, Festive

But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.

- Anne Bronte

source: Anne Brontë, “The Narrow Way”

topic: Flower, Rose, Should

To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light is, doubtless, the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to reveal the snares and pitfalls of like to the young and thoughtless traveller, or to cover them with branches and flowers? Oh, reader! if there were less of this delicate concealment of facts--this whispering "Peace, peace," when there is no peace, there would be less of sin and misery to the young of both sexes who are left to wring their bitter knowledge from experience.

- Anne Bronte

topic: Sex, Flower, Light, Concealment

By the time we left college, I had become my own image: a dandelion in the flower bed of society. Kinda cute, but still a weed.

- Anne Fortier

source: Anne Fortier (2012). “Juliet (Random House Reader's Circle Deluxe Reading Group Edition): A Novel”, p.41, Ballantine Books

topic: Cute, Weed, Flower, Dandelions

Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because the regret is stronger than gratitude.

- Anne Frank

topic: Gratitude, Regret, Flower, Dead People

The trouble with flowers is that invariably, when I'm ready to photograph them, they are not in season.

- Anne Geddes

topic: Photography, Flower, Trouble

I can't think of any flower that wouldn't be suitable to merge with an image of a newborn, and as I was planning for the book, Miracle, I was drawn to blossoms that appealed to me artistically.

- Anne Geddes

topic: Flower, Book, Thinking

I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.

I did not raise my son, Sam, to celebrate Mother's Day. I didn't want him to feel some obligation to buy me pricey lunches or flowers, some annual display of gratitude that you have to grit your teeth and endure.

topic: Spring, Flower, Eye, Spring Flowers, Hectic

You want to give me chocolate and flowers? That would be great. I love them both. I just don't want them out of guilt, and I don't want them if you're not going to give them to all the people who helped mother our children.

topic: Mother, Gratitude, Flower

My mother's eyes were large and brown, like my son's, but unlike Sam's, they were always frantic, like a hummingbird who can't quite find the flower but keeps jabbing around.

topic: Mother, Children, Flower

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.

topic: Mother, Flower, Eye, Hummingbirds

For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.

topic: Morning, Prayer, Flower, Saying A Prayer

Flowers always have it - poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection . . .

topic: Happiness, Spring, Flower, Joy Within, Inspirational Flower

People talk about love as though it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers. And a lot of people give love like that -- just dump it down on top of you, a useless strong-scented burden.

topic: Flower, Perfection, Fulfillment, Poise

People talk about love as if it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers.

topic: Strong, Flower, People, Dump

I do not wish to grow old, to outlive my illusions. Only a short respite from cares and sorrow, a brief time of flowers, and music, and love, and laughter, and ecstatic tears.

topic: Love, Flower, People

- Anne Reeve Aldrich

source: Anne Reeve Aldrich (1899). “A Village Ophelia”

topic: Laughter, Flower, Sorrow, Respite, Growing Old

Words. Borne on the ever swelling current of hatred, like flowers opening in the current, petals peeling back, then falling apart.

- Anne Rice

topic: Flower, Fall, Hatred, Swelling

My own funeral, I'd like to be laid out in a coffin in my own house. I would like my coffin to be put in the double parlor, and I would like all the flowers to be white.

- Anne Rice

topic: Flower, White, Funeral, Parlor

You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.

- Anne Sullivan Macy

source: "The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller, (Ch. 6), 1903.

topic: Love, Rain, Flower, Hot Days

She understood. They were plastic flowers of wordsâ€”but they looked nice on the surface.

- Anne Ursu

topic: Nice, Flower, Plastic, Plastic Flowers

Crystals grew inside rock like arithmetic flowers. They lengthened and spread, added plane to plane in an awed and perfect obedience to an absolute geometry that even stones - maybe only the stones - understood.

- Annie Dillard

topic: Fear, Flower, Rocks

When the State withers, humanity flowers.

- Anthony Burgess

topic: Flower, Humanity, States

If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.

- Anthony de Mello

source: "The Way to Love : The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello". Book by Anthony de Mello, 1995.

topic: Children, Flower, Mean

She knew this man's smile, his gentle ways of love, but not his godlike fury in the storm. She might snare him in a fragile net of music, love and flowers, but, at each departure, he would break forth without, it seemed to her, the least regret.

You know...my flower...I'm responsible for her. And she's so weak! And so naive. She has four ridiculous thorns to defend her against the world...

topic: Regret, Flower, Men, Love And Flower, Way Of Love

He sat down. I sat down next to him. And after a silence, he spoke again. 'The stars are beautiful because of a flower you don't see...' I answered, 'Yes, of course.

topic: Flower, World, Four

I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved any one. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day he says over and over, just like you: 'I am busy with matters of consequence!' And that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man - he is a mushroom!

topic: Beautiful, Stars, Flower

If some one loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. He tells himself, "My flower's up there somewhere. . . ." But if the sheep eats the flower, then for him it's as if, suddenly, all the stars went out. And that isn't important?

topic: Stars, Flower, Pride

What have you come to Earth for?' 'I'm having difficulties with a flower,' the little prince said. 'Ah!' said the snake. And they were both silent.

topic: Stars, Flower, Sheep

If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers...

topic: Flower, Snakes, Earth

if a sheep eats bushes does it eat flowers too? a sheep eats whatever it finds even a flower with thorn? even a flower with thorns. then what's the good of thorns?

topic: Sweet, Stars, Flower

I ought not to have listened to her,' he confided to me one day. 'One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace.

topic: Flower, Sheep, Doe

She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...

topic: Flower, Grace, One Day

Look at the sky. Ask yourselves: Has the sheep eaten the flower, yes or no? And you will see how everything changes...

topic: Running, Flower, Radiance, Flower Love

I don't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons...

topic: Flower, Sheep, Sky, Yes Or No