
“No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.”
"The Rose" (published c. 1648). Compare: "Flower of all hue, and without thorn the rose", John Milton, Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.; "Every rose has it's thorn", Poison, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
Hesperides (1648)
“No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.”
“A stranger's rose is but a thorn.”
In Alien Lands, translated by Leah W. Leonard.
Section 7 : Spiritual Progress
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: By what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit exists? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose Religion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our fingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose.
"Mussud's Praise of the Camel", p. 257.
Poetry of the Orient, 1893 edition
“There is darkness in light, there is pain in joy, and there are thorns on the rose.”