Flower quotations

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. Adabella Radici

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. Lydia M. Child

The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfilment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight. John Ruskin

The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life. Jean Giraudoux

A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even a solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it. Vita Sackville-West

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. The Koran

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers. Heinrich Heine

In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends. Kozuko Okakura

Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know flowers? Maurice Maeterlinck

In the cherry blossom's shade
There's no such thing
As a stranger. Kobayashi Issa

What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of the heaven. A.J. Balfour

Every child is born a naturalist. His eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of the flowers, and the mystery of life. R. Search

If you pass by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it, God gets real pissed off. Alice Walker

If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars? G.K. Chesterton

Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses. Ovid

Flowers bring to a liberall and gentlemanly minde the remembrance of honestie, comelinesse and all kindes of virtues. John Gerard

Where flowers bloom so does hope. Lady Bird Johnson

Little flower - but if I could understand, what you are, root and all in all, I should know what God and man is. Alfred, Lord Tennyson

For a vast and beautiful collection of flower quotations and poems (some of which I have ‘picked’ for you here), visit Flowers – Quotes and poems for gardeners