“Life is a waste of wearisome hours
Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,
Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.”

“Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.”

“Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn,
And liquid amber drop from every thorn.”

“Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.”

“If man's heart bares thistles instead of rose who will dare to admire? Before roses cometh thorns, but people only see the thorns not the roses I bare.”

“But o'er CYRENE'S cheek the rose,
Like moon-touch'd water, ebbs and flows;
And eyes that droop like Summer flowers
Told they could change with shine and showers.”

“Life is full of paradoxes, as roses are of thorns.”

“No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.”

“It will all come back — the wasted splendor,
The heart's lost youth like a breaking flower,
The dauntless dare, and the wistful, tender
Touch of the April hour.”

“Her heart was a passion-flower, bearing within it the crown of thorns and the cross of Christ.”