“Plant the flower of love on fertile ground, and provide personal care; furnish water during a drought; offer substance so it will grow strong, and always prune the deadened branches to spring anew.”

— Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1980

Last update Oct. 14, 2023. History

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“The flowers anew returning seasons bring!
But beauty faded has no second spring.”

Ambrose Philips (1674–1749) Anglo-Irish poet and politician

Lobbing, The First Pastoral (1709), line 55.

“Always it’s Spring)and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Source: 100 Selected Poems

“The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; — such is our personality.”

Cyril Connolly book The Unquiet Grave

Part I: Ecce Gubernator (p. 20)
The Unquiet Grave (1944)
Context: A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; — such is our personality.

“I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Recalled in a letter from Joshua Speed in Herndon's Lincoln (1890), p. 527 http://books.google.com/books?id=rywOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA527&dq=%22plucked+a+thistle+and+planted+a+flower%22
Posthumous attributions

“It’s easy to plant a seed and sprinkle it with water, but once the sun scorches the ground, and the earth soaks up all the moisture, you’re left with nothing but a thirsty little flower trying desperately to make it out of the dirt.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

“Flowers are immortal. You cut them in autumn and they grow again in spring—somewhere.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

the organist
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

“We take love for granted. We assume we are all perfect lovers and all we need do is wait and our love will grow and blossom as readily as a flower in spring. Not so. Love doesn't grow unless we do. It takes patience, knowledge, experience, determination, and every positive trait we possess. In addition, love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

A Magazine of People and Possibilities interview (1998)

“A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Thro’ and thro’,
Here and there,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be fill’d with life anew.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Nothing Will Die (1830)
Context: Nothing will die;
All things will change
Thro’ eternity.
‘Tis the world’s winter;
Autumn and summer
Are gone long ago;
Earth is dry to the centre,
But spring, a new comer,
A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Thro’ and thro’,
Here and there,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be fill’d with life anew.

“Poor is he who in traitor doth confide :
Never shall snow-clad land good grain provide.
Poor she who in deserter faith doth show :
Never shall flowers on withered branches grow.”

Francesco Dall'Ongaro (1808–1873) Italian poet, playwright and librettist

Povero chi si fida ad un marrano:
Terra nevosa non mena più grano.
Povera chi si fida a un disertore :
Di ramo seco non germoglia fiore.
Stornelli Politici, "Il Disertore".
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 395.

“What is the spiritual battle? Well, the soul is a garden divided into two parts. On one half are planted thorny bushes, and on the other half flowers. We also have a water pump with two taps and two channels. The one guides the water to the thorns and the other to the flowers. I always have the choice to open one or the other tap. I leave the thorns without water and they dry up, I water the flowers and they blossom.”

Porphyrios Bairaktaris (1906–1991) Greek Saint

Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit - The Lives and Counsels of Contemporary Elders of Greece, p. 170

“Plant the flower of love on fertile ground, and provide personal care; furnish water during a drought; offer substance so it will grow strong, and always prune the deadened branches to spring anew.”

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