Frequently attributed to Nin, but without cited source in her work (possibly due to a quotation in Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Universal Questions (2000) by Dan Millman that attributed the quote to Nin without source).
In March 2013, a former Director of Public Relations at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, Elizabeth Appell, claimed she had authored the quote in 1979 for an inspirational header on a class schedule: http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com/2013/03/who-wrote-risk-is-the-mystery-solved/
Disputed
Variant: The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Quotes about blossom
A collection of quotes on the topic of blossom, flowers, flower, life.
Quotes about blossom
The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul (1994)
“Between our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossom.”
“In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.”
"Como se gobiernan las Filipinas" (How one governs in the Philippines), published in La Solidaridad (15 December 1890)
“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.”
“You're an obnoxious canker-blossom. Go ooze somewhere else.”
Toast to the artists Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo: Madrid, Spain (25 June 1884)
“What's old collapses, times change,
And new life blossoms in the ruins.”
Act IV, sc. ii
Wilhelm Tell (1803)
“Describe plum-blossoms?
Better than my verses… white
Wordless Butterflies”
Source: Japanese Haiku
Source: To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Invocations and Blessings
"Red Beans" (相思), trans. Zi-chang Tang
" 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。
§ 2.54
Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 11
Source: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1977), p.38
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
The Sarcastic Fair
Breaking Down the Wall of Silence (Abbruch der Schweigemauer) (1990)
The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1649/, st. 1
The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Humanity is such a lump of mud, each one of us is such a lump of mud. What is our duty? To struggle so that a small flower may blossom from the dunghill of our flesh and mind.
Out of things and flesh, out of hunger, out of fear, out of virtue and sin, struggle continually to create God.
“Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.”
Among School Children http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1437/, st. 8
The Tower (1928)
Context: Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
The Secret Teachings of All Ages p.306 https://ia800809.us.archive.org/15/items/Thesecretteachingsofallages2/The%20Secret%20Teachings%20Of%20All%20Ages%20-%20Manly%20P.%20Hall.pdf
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928)
Magic And Mystery In Tibet
“I would blossom if I were a rose.”
Source: The Lamp and the Bell
“Ah, how the seeds of cockiness blossom when soiled in ignorance.”
Source: The Loch
“Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name?”
Source: The Mountains of California
Source: Night World, No. 2
“May all that is unlived in you blossom into a future graced with love.”
Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
“Drunk with beauty, I tore down
Armfuls of blossoms.
How desolate the marred sky!”
Source: The Naming
“I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God."
and the almond tree blossomed.”
The Fratricides (1964)
Source: Report to Greco
“I seek new perfumes, ampler blossoms, untried pleasures.”
Source: Against Nature
Source: Family - The Ties that Bind...And Gag!
“Youth is a blossom whose fruit is love; happy is he who plucks it after watching it slowly ripen.”
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
“You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.”
Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit - The Lives and Counsels of Contemporary Elders of Greece, p. 170
The Growth of Love http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6639&poem=510395, Sonnet 6 (1876).
Poetry
Love is Enough (1872), Song III: It Grew Up Without Heeding
Book 1, as cited in Frank Teichmann (tr. Jon McAlice), "The Emergence of the Idea of Evolution in the Time of Goethe" http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAIdeaEvolTeich.pdf
Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784-91)
Epitaph on an Infant
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Source: Helen Craig McCullough's translations, Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry (1985), p. 174
Japan, the Beautiful and Myself (1969)
Kirchner; as quoted in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: ein Künstlerleben in Selbstzeugnissen, Andreas Gabelmann (Claire Louise Albiez, translation); Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Germany 2010, p. 28
undated
The Laurel Seed; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439.
“Let the black flower blossom as it may!”
Source: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XIV: Hester and the Physician
《望江南》 ("Immeasurable Pain"), as translated by Arthur Waley in The Temple (1923), p. 144
“Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”
sc. iii. Compare: "The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust", Tate and Brady, Psalm cxxii.
The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses
On Shakespeare In Love
GQ Interview (2005)
Source: Soul Curry for You and Me: An Empowering Philosophy that Can Enrich Your Life, P. 21-22.
Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), The Friend
Source: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1002), p. 138