Flowers grow out of dark moments.

 

CORITA KENT, Moments of 1984 

Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all of the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house.                                                                                                                                 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays

 

 

Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, The Naval Treaty

 

I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like, than the most expensive bouquet that could be bought!

ELIZABETH GASKELL, Wives and Daughters

 

We grow like flowers, and bear desire, The odor of the human flowers.

                        RICHARD HENRY STODDARD, The Squire of Low Degree--The Princess Answers