Quotes about flowers

A collection of quotes on the topic of flowers, flower, likeness, love.

Best quotes about flowers

„Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.“

— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890

„I must have flowers, always, and always.“

— Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926

Variant: I must have flowers, always and always.

„Love is the flower you've got to let grow.“

— John Lennon English singer and songwriter 1940 - 1980

„The earth laughs in flowers.“

— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882

„May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.“

— Thich Nhat Hanh Religious leader and peace activist 1926

„With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?“

— Oscar Wilde Irish writer and poet 1854 - 1900

„Life is the flower for which love is the honey.“

— Victor Hugo French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802 - 1885

„Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower.“

— Albert Camus French author and journalist 1913 - 1960

As quoted in Visions from Earth (2004) by James R. Miller, p. 126

„Love is flower like; Friendship is like a sheltering tree.“

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772 - 1834

„Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.“

— Khalil Gibran Lebanese artist, poet, and writer 1883 - 1931

All quotes about flowers

Total 1312 quotes flowers, filter:

„What about sunrise, what about rain?
What about all the things that you said we were to gain?
What about flowering fields, is there a time?
What about all the dreams that you said was yours and mine?“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009

HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)

Dreams, Time

„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.“

— Daisaku Ikeda Japanese writer 1928

Life, Pain, Art

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

— Anne Frank victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary 1929 - 1945

People, Dead, Gratitude, Deep

„The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee…“

— Emily Dickinson American poet 1830 - 1886

Love, Bee

„There's gonna' be a lotta slow singin' and flower bringin' if my burglar alarm starts ringin.“

— The Notorious B.I.G. American rapper 1972 - 1997

Song lyrics, Ready to Die (1994), "Warning"

„Listen,
if stars are still lit it means there is someone who needs them.
It means someone wants to love,
Why then do we feel so much pain and heaviness of heart?
are we waiting for something, regretting anything?
To whom I can strech out my hand in the somber desert?
Who will accompany me on the empty night?
Who will give me a fiery day?
Who will bring back the sea that left?
No hope here. Torment is certain.
Without sacredness in the emptiness of this world of ours,
the heart of man fades like a flower.
Suddenly, the shuddering of the heavens penetrating my soul,
Oh never let the parting sun, no star is ever lost we once have seen, the long rains will continue to fall.“

— Alexis Karpouzos 1967

Source: Song THE HEART OF MAN

Soul, Pain, Waiting, Night

„When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.“

— Ram Dass American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now 1931 - 2019

Personality

„Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, Kind words, and Kind deeds.“

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow American poet 1807 - 1882

Heart

„I paint flowers so they will not die.“

— Frida Kahlo Mexican painter 1907 - 1954

Painting

„What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that flower in you hand
Ah, what then?“

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772 - 1834

Source: The Complete Poems

Beauty, Dreams, Sleep

„My mother named me after a miracle of nature: Waris means desert flower. The desert flower blooms in a barren environment where few living things can survive.“

— Waris Dirie, book Desert Flower

Source: Desert Flower

Nature

„The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain“

— Padre Pio Italian saint, priest, stigmatist and mystic 1887 - 1968

Life, Pain, Beauty, Soul

„I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.“

— Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926

„I would regard meanings given by others so far as refreshing boon,
I would still be enamored of rose or any heartless flower's smell
if tender tides of your affection had not suffused
the pollen of my heart with loving aroma.“

— Suman Pokhrel Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist 1967

You are, as You are https://allpoetry.com/poem/11313676-You-are--as-You-are--by-Suman-Pokhrel/
From Poetry

Love, Heart

„Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship.“

— Henri-Frédéric Amiel Swiss philosopher and poet 1821 - 1881

30 December 1850
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Each bud flowers but once and each flower has but its minute of perfect beauty; so, in the garden of the soul each feeling has, as it were, its flowering instant, its one and only moment of expansive grace and radiant kingship. Each star passes but once in the night through the meridian over our heads and shines there but an instant; so, in the heaven of the mind each thought touches its zenith but once, and in that moment all its brilliancy and all its greatness culminate. Artist, poet, or thinker, if you want to fix and immortalize your ideas or your feelings, seize them at this precise and fleeting moment, for it is their highest point. Before it, you have but vague outlines or dim presentiments of them. After it you will have only weakened reminiscence or powerless regret; that moment is the moment of your ideal.

Beauty, Feeling, Soul, Perfection

„If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.“

— Alfred, Lord Tennyson British poet laureate 1809 - 1892

Time, For Wife, love, Missing You

„I'm looking for the face i had before the world was made. I was the primordial flaring forth, the gravitational waves, the whirling galaxies, and the exploding supernovas that would become stars and planets. I was the steaming planet Earth, the bacteria awash in the sea, and the early eukaryotes and multicellular animals. I exploded in the Cambrian explosion, stumbled onto land, walked with dinosaurs, saw trees and flowers appear, walked upright in Africa, and walked on the moon. I felt the embrace of gravity. I was one with all that had been and all that was to be. I experienced subjective mystical communion with the evolutionary, emergent universe. I was the universe. We know not where the journey leads, nor whether a final destination is even a meaningful concept. The attraction is the inherent thrill of participating in a grand creative endeavor for which participation is its own reward“

— Alexis Karpouzos 1967

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14108295.alexis_karpouzos

Tree, Star, Animals, Universe

„My child, let your life come into the world of darkness
like a spark of light, without flicker and pure,
and thank them in silence. You know,
my child, they are cruel in their greed and envy,
their words are disguised knives thirsting for blood.
But do not be afraid, my child, go and stand in their hearts,
and let your gentle eyes fall on them like the forgiving serenity of the night.
My child, let them see your face and so they know it
meaning of all things, let them love and love one another.
Go, at sunrise, open and lift up your heart like a blooming flower,
and at sunset, bend your head and silently complete the worship of the day.
Remember, my child, gods and demons, ghosts and elves are fragments of one,
built by the hand of the abyss.
So, move on, go to the shore of the vast darkness,
there, is the Great Meeting of Children,
there, the sea gives a smile to the beach,
there, sing the waves facing death.“

— Alexis Karpouzos 1967

Source: https://dailywisdomwords.com/community-poetry/my-child/

God, Light, Silence, Children

„I imbue this place with my essence, every stone and every drop. My visit will do wonders for the flowers."

Aly propped her chin on her hand. "So does manure," she observed.“

— Tamora Pierce American writer of fantasy novels for children 1954

Source: Trickster's Queen

„Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.“

— Georgia O'Keeffe American artist 1887 - 1986

O'Keeffe's contribution (1939) to the exhibition catalogue of the show An American place (1944)
1930 - 1950
Source: Georgia O'Keeffe
Context: A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower - the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower — lean forward to smell it — maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking — or give it to someone to please them. Still — in a way — nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven't time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time... So I said to myself — I'll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers... Well — I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower — and I don't.

Time

„One loses, as one grows older, something of the lightness of one's dreams; one begins to take life up in both hands, and to care more for the fruit than the flower, and that is no great loss perhaps.“

— W.B. Yeats Irish poet and playwright 1865 - 1939

Source: The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

Life, Dreams, Light, Loss

„The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.“

— Mark Nepo American writer 1951

Dreams, Bee

„You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.“

— Robert Jordan, The Shadow Rising

al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara
(15 September 1992)
Source: The Shadow Rising

Heart

„From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.“

— Edvard Munch Norwegian painter and printmaker 1863 - 1944

Quote in Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors (2007) by William Thompson and Kim Sorvig, p. 30
after 1930

„Of all I have ever seen or learned, that book seems to me the noblest, the wisest, and the most powerful expression of man's life upon this earth — and also the highest flower of poetry, eloquence, and truth. I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter of literary creation, but if I had to make one I could say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom expressed in it the most lasting and profound.“

— Thomas Wolfe American writer 1900 - 1938

Life, Wisdom, Truth, Books

„Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.“

— Beatrix Potter English children's writer and illustrator 1866 - 1943

God, Lie

„stay together
learn the flowers
go light“

— Gary Snyder American poet 1930

Light, Learning

„I love you like a river that creates the right conditions for trees and bushes and flowers to flourish along its banks. I love you like a river that gives water to the thirsty and takes people where they want to go.“

— Paulo Coelho, book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Love, People, Tree, Water

„The flower has no weekday self, dressed as it always is in Sunday clothes.“

— Malcolm de Chazal Mauritian artist 1902 - 1981

Sens-plastique

Clothes

„A need to concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower.“

— Arvo Pärt Estonian composer 1935

Arvo Pärt: 24 Preludes for a Fugue http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358947/ (DVD, 2002)

Grass

„Nothing ceases to exist – there is no example of this in nature... There is an entire mass of things that cannot rationally explained. There are newborn thoughts that have not yet found form. How foolish to deny the existence of the soul. After all, that a life has begun, that cannot be denied. It is necessary to believe in immortality, insofar as it can be demonstrated that the atoms of life or the spirit of life must continue to exist after the body’s death. But of what does it exist, this characteristic of holding a body together, causing matter to change and develop, this spirit of life? I felt it as a sensual delight that I should become one with – become this earth which is forever radiated by the sun in such a constant ferment and which lives – lives – and which will grow plants from my decaying body – trees and flowers – and the sun will warm them and I will exist in them – and nothing will perish – and that is eternity.“

— Edvard Munch Norwegian painter and printmaker 1863 - 1944

T 2760 (January 1892); as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 119
1880 - 1895

Life, Death, Soul, Nature

„Slowly the joy of flower and bird
Did like a tide withdraw;
And in the heaven a silent star
Smiled on me, infinitely far.“

— Francis William Bourdillon British poet 1852 - 1921

" The Chantry Of The Cherubim http://www.bartleby.com/236/219.html" in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917) by D. H. S. Nicholson.
Context: p>I walk as one unclothed of flesh,
I wash my spirit clean;
I see old miracles afresh,
And wonders yet unseen.
I will not leave Thee till Thou give
Some word whereby my soul may live!I listened — but no voice I heard;
I looked — no likeness saw;
Slowly the joy of flower and bird
Did like a tide withdraw;
And in the heaven a silent star
Smiled on me, infinitely far.</p

Smile, Star, Bird, Joy

„And before the stars were born.
The greatest gift you can offer anyone is their complete freedom.
Freedom to love, to laugh, to cry, to feel scared, angry, insecure, full of doubt or full of joy.
To hold them in that safe and sacred space.
You don't exist to make anyone else happy.
But you can be present.
Present to their unhappiness, their excitement.
Present to the life that moves in them.
And you can invite them to a deeper Happiness.
The Happiness of Being itself.
The Happiness that holds them exactly as they are.
The way you hold them now.
The way the ground holds the flowers, the trees, the great mountain ranges.
The way you were held as a little one.
And before the stars were born.“

— Джефф Фостер American basketball player 1977

Love, Life, Way, Feeling

„I lift my heart as spring lifts up
A yellow daisy to the rain;
My heart will be a lovely cup
Altho' it holds but pain.

For I shall learn from flower and leaf
That color every drop they hold,
To change the lifeless wine of grief
To living gold.“

— Sara Teasdale, Rivers to the Sea

"Alchemy"
Rivers to the Sea (1915)

Pain, Spring, Heart, Learning

„People are beautifully made just like flowers in the garden!“

— Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

People

„You look at me, you look at me closely, each time closer and then we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes grow, they grow closer, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other, breathing confusion, their mouths find each other and fight warmly, biting with their lips, resting their tongues lightly on their teeth, playing in their caverns where the heavy air comes and goes with the scent of an old perfume and silence. Then my hands want to hide in your hair, slowly stroke the depth of your hair while we kiss with mouths full of flowers or fish, of living movements, of dark fragrance. And if we bite each other, the pain is sweet, and if we drown in a short and terrible surge of breath, that instant death is beauty. And there is a single saliva and a single flavour of ripe fruit, and I can feel you shiver against me like a moon on the water.“

— Julio Cortázar Argentinian writer 1914 - 1984

Death, Pain, Beauty, Feeling

„Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.“

— Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" (1923)
1920s

Nature

„Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.“

— Louisa May Alcott, book Little Men

Source: Little Men

Love, Autumn, Winter

„A flower is not better when it blooms than when it is merely a bud; at each stage it is the same thing — a flower in the process of expressing its potential.“

— Paulo Coelho Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947

Source: Warrior of the Light

„Every moment there are a million miracles happening around you: a flower blossoming, a bird tweeting, a bee humming, a raindrop falling, a snowflake wafting along the clear evening air. There is magic everywhere. If you learn how to live it, life is nothing short of a daily miracle.“

— Sadhguru, book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Life, Bird, Learning, Bee

„And she moves among the sparrows. And she floats upon the breeze. She moves among the flowers. She moves something deep inside of me“

— Nick Cave Australian musician 1957

„These people were not only cheering, they were throwing flowers and hats. The hats were made of stone, but the thought was there.“

— Terry Pratchett, book Eric

Source: Eric

People

„By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.“

— Vernon Howard American writer 1918 - 1992

Beauty

„Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street… Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.“

— Wassily Kandinsky Russian painter 1866 - 1944

Secret, Soul, Star, Dead

„The moon like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night.“

— William Blake, Night

Night, st. 1
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)

Smile, Night

„I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents. Which is why I like things like cuts and bruises - they're like little flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something, like 'cut' or 'bruise,' people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, and you don't know what it is, it can be very beautiful.“

— David Lynch American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor 1946

Hate, People, Beauty, Nature

„Most of the people are homesick anyway, and a little lonely, and they hide themselves in their hair and are turned into flowers.“

— Tove Jansson Finnish children's writer and illustrator 1914 - 2001

Source: Sculptor's Daughter

People

„Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.“

— Gérard de Nerval French Romantic poet 1808 - 1855

Soul, Nature, Beauty, Peaceful

„If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.“

— Masaru Emoto Japanese writer 1943 - 2014

Source: Secret Life of Water

Beauty, Disappointment, Feeling, Strong

„Like flowers in a storm, life is full of goodbyes“

— Masuji Ibuse Japanese writer 1898 - 1993

Life

„Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.“

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Kiss

„There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them“

— Henri Matisse French artist 1869 - 1954

1940s, Jazz (1947)

„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, book A Fairly Honourable Defeat

A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970); 2001, p. 170.

People, Thinking, Time, Joy

„I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted
to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free.“

— Sylvia Plath, Ariel

Source: Ariel

Lie, Idea

„The Girl With Many Eyes
One day in the park
I had quite a surprise.
I met a girl
who had many eyes.

She was really quite pretty
(and also quite shocking!)
and I noticed she had a mouth,
so we ended up talking.

We talked about flowers,
and her poetry classes,
and the problems she'd have
if she ever wore glasses.

It's great to know a girl
who has so many eyes,
but you really get wet
when she breaks down and cries.“

— Tim Burton American filmmaker 1958

Girl, Problem

„Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches, and here is my heart which beats only for you.“

— Paul Verlaine French poet 1844 - 1896

Heart, Valentine's Day

„I learned that just beneath the surface there's another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn't find the proof. It was just a kind of feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force--a wild pain and decay--also accompanies everything.“

— David Lynch American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor 1946

Pain, World, Feeling, Learning

„A flower blossoms for its own joy.“

— Oscar Wilde Irish writer and poet 1854 - 1900

Joy

„The thought that I might kill myself formed in my mind coolly as a tree or a flower.“

— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963

Tree

„A flower can't choose the place where it blooms, and a child can't choose the parents she's born to“

— Hiro Mashima Japanese manga artist 1977

Parent

„You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.“

— Robert Jordan American writer 1948 - 2007

Source: Starscape Boxed Set B Mixed

„Even the birds above the lake
Are singing of my love,
And even the flowers along the shore
Are growing for her sake.

All the vines are ripening
And the trees come into bud,
For my love's footsteps passing by
Are summoning the spring.

Rian's stars in the night
Shine more brightly over her,
The god's moon and the goddess's
Guard her with their light.

Even the birds above the lake
Are singing of my love,
And even the flowers along the shore
Are growing for her sake“

— Guy Gavriel Kay Canadian author of fantasy fiction 1954

Source: A Song for Arbonne

Love, God, Star, Spring

„Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.“

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

„Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.“

— Oscar Wilde Irish writer and poet 1854 - 1900

Quoted by Alvin Redman in The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde http://books.google.com/books?id=qUjQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Keep+love+in+your+heart+a+life+without+it+is+like+a+sunless+garden+when+the+flowers+are+dead+the+consciousness+of+loving+and+being+loved+brings+a+warmth+and+richness+to+life+that+nothing+else+can+bring%22&pg=PA102#v=onepage (1952)

Love, Life, Heart, Dead

„If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning… Face it, friend. He is crazy about you!“

— Max Lucado American clergyman and writer 1955

God, Photo, Spring

„I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me. But I do not think my life will be long. As my uncle went, as poor Johansen went, so I shall go. I know too much, and the cult still lives.“

— H.P. Lovecraft, book The Call of Cthulhu

Source: Fiction, The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

Life, Spring, Thinking, Universe

„I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.“

— George Carlin American stand-up comedian 1937 - 2008

Grass

„Fairy Song
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! oh, weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
Dry your eyes! oh, dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies,—
Shed no tear.

Overhead! look overhead!
‘Mong the blossoms white and red—
Look up, look up! I flutter now
On this fresh pomegranate bough.
See me! ’tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man’s ill.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu—I fly—adieu!
I vanish in the heaven’s blue,—
Adieu, adieu!“

— John Keats English Romantic poet 1795 - 1821

Tear, Sleep, Flying

„Nature is pitiless; she never withdraws her flowers, her music, her fragrance, and her sunlight from before human cruelty or suffering.“

— Victor Hugo French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802 - 1885

Source: Quatrevingt-Treize

Music, Nature, Suffering

„The flower bloomed and faded. The sun rose and sank. The lover loved and went. And what the poets said in rhyme, the young translated into practice.“

— Virginia Woolf, book Orlando: A Biography

Source: Orlando

Love, Lovers, Sun, Sad

„Flowers are reincarnation. They come out of the earth of our ashes. Nothing else looks so soul-like.“

— Francesca Lia Block, book Echo

Source: Echo

Soul

„Let us all, then, join their comrades who live, in spreading flowers over the graves of these dead Federal soldiers, before the whole American people, as a peace offering to the nation, as a testimonial of our respect for their devotion to duty, and as a tribute from patriots, as we have ever been, to the great Republic, and in honor of the flag against which we fought, and under which they fell, nobly maintaining the honor of that flag. It is our duty to honor the government for which they died, and if called upon, to fight for the flag we could not conquer.“

— Nathan Bedford Forrest Confederate Army general 1821 - 1877

1870s, Letter to war veterans (1875)

People, Peace, Fight, Dead

„Poetry is a sort of truancy, a dream within the dream of life, a wild flower planted among our wheat.“

— Michael Oakeshott British philosopher 1901 - 1990

Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962)

Life, Dreams

„A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over.“

— Honoré de Balzac French writer 1799 - 1850

Une jeune fille est comme une fleur qu'on a cueillie; mais la femme coupable est une fleur sur laquelle on a marché.
Honorine http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Honorine (1845), translated by Clara Bell

„For mum we're fly. What mum you don't know who am I? I am Józio. And this is my sister Rózia. Now we're fly in sky! There is better than mum. See how heads in ray. Clothes with lucifer light. And on my hand as butterfly airfoil in sky we have all what we want, every day other toy, where we go here is grass, where we touch here is a flower. But we have what we want, torture us boring and trepidation. Oh mum for Your children road to heaven has been closed! On Always!“

— Adam Mickiewicz, book Dziady

Do mamy lecim do mamy! Cóż to, mamo nie znasz Józia? Ja to Józio ja ten samy. A to moja siostra Rózia. My teraz w raju latamy, Tam nam lepiej niż u mamy. Patrz jakie główki w promieniu, Ubiór z jutrzenki światełka, A na oboim ramieniu Jak u motylków skrzydełka, w raju wszystkiego dostatek, Co dzień to inna zabawka, gdzie stąpim wypływa trawka, gdzie dotkniem rozkwita kwiatek. Lecz choć wszystkiego dostatek dręczy nad nuda i trwoga. Ach mamo dla twoich dziatek zamknięta do nieba droga!
Part two.
Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) http://www.ap.krakow.pl/nkja/literature/polpoet/mic_fore.htm

Children, Sister, Light, Grass

„Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o’er the flowers.“

— Robert Herrick, book Hesperides

"To Music, to becalm his Fever".
Hesperides (1648)

„One who is blind throws away even a garland of flower placed on his head, thinking it is a snake.“

— Kālidāsa, Abhigyanashakuntalam

Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Sign of Shakuntala)
Original: (sa) स्रजमपि शिरस्यन्धः क्षिप्तं धुनोत्यहिशंकया

Thinking

„Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue.“

— Robert Frost American poet 1874 - 1963

" Fragmentary Blue http://www.ketzle.com/frost/fragblue.htm", st. 1 (1923)
1920s

Bird

„I don't work that way. Part of it has to do with an idea of beauty. Sunsets, flowers, landscapes: these kinds of things don't move me to do anything. I just want to leave them alone. My work comes out of being frustrated about the human condition. And about how people refuse to understand other people. And about how people can be cruel to each other. It’s not that I think I can change that, but it’s such a frustrating part of human history“

— Bruce Nauman American artist 1941

Source: Robert C. Morgan (2002). Bruce Nauman, p. 281

People, Beauty, Way, History

„I hate flowers — I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move!“

— Georgia O'Keeffe American artist 1887 - 1986

quote in Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, Laurie Lisle, Viking Press, New York, 1981, p. 180
1980s

Hate, Painting

„Marxists should not be afraid of criticism from any quarter. Quite the contrary, they need to temper and develop themselves and win new positions in the teeth of criticism and in the storm and stress of struggle. Fighting against wrong ideas is like being vaccinated -- a man develops greater immunity from disease as a result of vaccination. Plants raised in hothouses are unlikely to be hardy. Carrying out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend will not weaken, but strengthen, the leading position of Marxism in the ideological field.“

— Mao Zedong Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China 1893 - 1976

" VIII. ON "LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOSSOM LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT CONTEND" AND "LONG-TERM COEXISTENCE AND MUTUAL SUPERVISION" "
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 马克思主义者不应该害怕任何人批评。相反，马克思主义者就是要在人们的批评中间，就是要在斗争的风雨中间，锻炼自己，发展自己，扩大自己的阵地。同错误思想作斗争，好比种牛痘，经过了牛痘疫苗的作用，人身上就增强免疫力。在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。实行百花齐放、百家争鸣的方针，并不会削弱马克思主义在思想界的领导地位，相反地正是会加强它的这种地位。

Disease, School, Idea, Fight

„"Teddy — I suppose Mummy and Daddy are real, aren't they?"
Teddy said, "You ask such silly questions, David. Nobody knows what 'real' really means. Let's go indoors."
"First I'm going to have another rose!" Plucking a bright pink flower, he carried it with him into the house. It could lie on the pillow as he went to sleep. Its beauty and softness reminded him of Mummy.“

— Brian W. Aldiss, book Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969)

Lie, Beauty, Question, Sleep

„Thought
is a flower from other worlds, a tale
that is torn in each written word.
……………I go outdoors
to give rest
to the soul’s tired muscles.“

— Juan Antonio Villacañas Spanish poet, essayist and critic 1922 - 2001

“Literaturaliae”, from Theme of My Biography (2000)

World, Soul

„Across the downs a hummingbird
Came dipping through the bowers,
He pivoted on emptiness
To scrutinize the flowers.“

— Nathalia Crane American writer 1913 - 1998

"The First Reformer"
Lava Lane and Other Poems (1925)

„You are a cosmic flower. Om chanting is the process of opening the psychic petals of that flower.“

— Amit Ray Indian author 1960

OM Chanting and Meditation (2010) http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/OM_Chanting_and_Meditation.html?id=3KKjPoFmf4YC,

„The ultimate source of energy, the sun is ready to set. The leaves of the blooming lotus flower in the pond are losing their lustre. A bumblebee, sitting on that lotus is enjoying the romantic pleasure and murmuring passionate songs.“

— Manmohan Acharya Poet, lyricist 1967 - 2013

Introduction
Song of the Bumblebee (2008)

Pleasure, Passion, Sun

„All the mysteries of consciousness flower in the body.“

— Robert Pinsky American poet, editor, literary critic, academic. 1940

The Art of Poetry - interview 1995 with Downing & Kunitz

„Tho' lost to sight, to memory dear
Thou ever wilt remain;
One only hope my heart can cheer,—
The hope to meet again.

Oh, fondly on the past I dwell,
And oft recall those hours
When, wandering down the shady dell,
We gathered the wild-flowers.

Yes, life then seemed one pure delight,
Tho' now each spot looks drear;
Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight,
To memory thou art dear.

Oft in the tranquil hour of night,
When stars illume the sky,
I gaze upon each orb of light,
And wish that thou wert by.

I think upon that happy time,
That time so fondly loved,
When last we heard the sweet bells chime,
As thro' the fields we roved.“

— George Linley British writer 1798 - 1865

Song, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). This song was written and composed by Linley for Mr. Augustus Braham, and sung by him. It is not known when it was written,—probably about 1830. Another song, entitled "Though lost to Sight, to Memory dear," was published in London in 1880, purporting to have been written by Ruthven Jenkyns in 1703 and published in the "Magazine for Mariners". That magazine, however, never existed, and the composer of the music acknowledged, in a private letter, that he copied the words from an American newspaper. The reputed author, Ruthven Jenkyns, was living, under another name, in California in 1882.

Love, Life, Smile, Hope

„If I was in a 9-6 job, I would want to come home and see someone pleasant on television. I don't mean that someone has to be extremely gorgeous, but there has to be a pleasant personality. The moment you look at a flower you feel nice — that is exactly what beauty does to a person. With good looks, things surely become easier.“

— Sukirti Kandpal Indian actress 1987

On the need of good looks for success in industry https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/My-boyfriend-doesnt-enjoy-watching-my-romantic-scenes-Sukirti-Kandpal/articleshow/20330247.cms/

Beauty, Feeling, Home, Personality

„If they (children) smash, the flower vase assumes a smile
while turning into pieces.
For a chance to be spilled by their hands,
anything they hold gets spilled itself full of happiness.
For a chance to play with them,
water forgets about its own colourlessness.“

— Suman Pokhrel Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist 1967

Children http://www.occupypoetry.net/children_1/
From Poetry

Children, Smile, Water, Chance

„The sun and moon, O Lord, are Thy lamps; the firmament Thy salver; the orbs of the stars the pearls encased in it.
The perfume of the sandal is Thine incense, the wind is Thy fan, all the forests are Thy flowers, O Lord of light.
What worship is this, O Thou destroyer of birth? Unbeaten strains of ecstasy are the trumpets of Thy worship.
Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form;
Thou hast a thousand stainless feet and yet not one foot; Thou hast a thousand organs of smell and yet not one organ. I am fascinated by this play of 'l hine.
The light which is in everything is Chine, O Lord of light.
From its brilliancy everything is illuminated;
By the Guru's teaching the light becometh manifest.
What pleaseth Thee is the real worship.
O God, my mind is fascinated with Thy lotus feet as the bumble-bee with the flower; night and day I thirst for them.
Give the water of Thy favour to the Sarang (bird) Nanak, so that he may dwell in Thy Name.“

— Nanak Founder of Sikhism 1469 - 1539

Guru Nanak Dev ji (1469 - 1539)

God, Star, Birth, Bird

„Flowers rejoice when night is done,
Lift their heads to greet the sun;
Sweetest looks and odours raise,
In a silent hymn of praise.“

— Henry Van Dyke American diplomat 1852 - 1933

Matins, st. 1.

Sun, Night

„I just stepped out of the dark, still forest and found myself on a rising hill. In front of me I saw a valley, surrounded by fertile hills, in which a town stood and the newly covered slate roof of the tower glowed in the evening light. Through the richly-flowered, carpeted meadow the river meandered... And behind the hills lay the mountains.... cliff after cliff rose far out into the horizon... Filled with soaring joy I stood there a long time and looked at the beautiful area..“

— Caspar David Friedrich Swedish painter 1774 - 1840

Quote from Friedrich's Diary-note, 1803; as cited by C. D. Eberlein in C. D. Friedrich - Bekenntnisse, pp. 72-73; translated and quoted by Linda Siegel in Caspar David Friedrich and the Age of German Romanticism, Boston Branden Press Publishers, 1978, p. 45
1794 - 1840

Beauty, Mountain, Light, Time

„Even if they (Children) try to pluck it,
the flower submits itself onto their hands.
If it happens to prick their heels,
the thorn scorns itself all its life.“

— Suman Pokhrel Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist 1967

Children http://www.occupypoetry.net/children_1/
From Poetry

Life, Children

„And the flowers sing in D minor
And the birds fly happily.“

— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994

Spank Thru.
Song lyrics, B-sides and compilation tracks (1989-1993)

Bird, Singing, Flying

„The vendors of flowers in the streets of London are wont to commend them to customers by crying: "All a blowing and a growing." It would be no small praise to Christians if we could say as much for them.“

— Charles Spurgeon British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist 1834 - 1892

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 294.

Cry

„Ah, yet would God this flesh of mine might be
Where air might wash and long leaves cover me;
Where tides of grass break into foam of flowers,
Or where the wind's feet shine along the sea.“

— Algernon Charles Swinburne English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic 1837 - 1909

Laus Veneris.
Undated

God, Grass, Sea

„Deserted now the Imperial bowers
Save by some few poor lonely flowers…
One white-haired dame,
An emperor's flame,
Sits down and tells of bygone hours.“

— Yuan Zhen

"At an Old Palace" (《行宫》), in Gems of Chinese Literature, trans. Herbert A. Giles
Variant translations:
Deserted now imperial bowers.
For whom still redden palace flowers?
Some white-haired chambermaids at leisure
Talk of the late emperor's pleasure.
"At an Old Palace", in Song of the Immortals: An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, trans. Yuanchong Xu (Beijing: New World Press, 1994), p. 128
The ancient Palace lies in desolation spread.
The very garden flowers in solitude grow red.
Only some withered dames with whitened hair remain,
Who sit there idly talking of mystic monarchs dead.
"The Ancient Palace", as translated by W. J. B. Fletcher in Lotus and Chrysanthemum: An Anthology of Chinese and Japanese Poetry (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1934), p. 107
Original: (zh) 寥落古行宫，宫花寂寞红。
白头宫女在，闲坐说玄宗。

„Cornelia. What flowers are these?
Gazetta. The pansy this.
Cor. Oh, that's for lover's thoughts.“

— George Chapman, All Fools

Act II, scene i.
All Fools (1605)

Lovers

„Leaves grow green to fall,
Flowers grow fair to fade,
Fruits grow ripe to rot —
All but for passing made.“

— Letitia Elizabeth Landon English poet and novelist 1802 - 1838

(14th October 1826) Changes
The London Literary Gazette, 1826