Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“And love became the world's origin and the world's ruler, yet littered its path is with flowers and blood, flowers and blood.”
Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Victoria (1898)
“What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Charles Altieri (1989) Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry, p. 169: Talking about the movement of Impressionism.
“It gives my brain a rest, painting flowers. I don't feel the same tension as when I have a model in front of me. When I paint flowers, I put on colours and try out values boldly, without worrying about wasting a canvas. I wouldn't dare to do it with a figure; I'd be afraid of spoiling the whole thing. And the experience I gain this way is then applied to my pictures.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Aman's pomp poor Mardocheus wept, Yet God did turn his fate upon his foe; The Lazar pined while Dives' feast was kept, Yet he to heaven, to hell did Dives go. We trample grass and prize the flowers of May, Yet grass is green when flowers do fade away.”
Robert Southwell (priest) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Back in the day, it was, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair." Where in the fuck was San Francisco? And the only flowers we ever saw in Aston were on a coffin going to a cemetery.”
Ozzy Osbourne (1948–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But, child of dust, the fragrant flowers, The bright blue flowers and velvet sod, Were strange conductors to the bowers Thy daring footsteps must have trod.”
Emily Brontë (1818–1848) first seen 1837 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Saw Thee, Child, One Summer Day", st. 4 (July 1837)
“Where are the flowers, the beautiful flowers, That haunted your homes and your hearts in the spring ? Where is the sunshine of earlier hours ? Where is the music the birds used to bring ?”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (9th May 1829) Change
“Yes, Heaven is thine; but this Is a world of sweets and sours; Our flowers are merely—flowers.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Israfel", st. 7 (1831).
“Why are women wearing perfumes that smell like flowers to attract men? Men don't like flowers. I have a great idea for a scent that will attract men — how about "New Car Interior"?”
Rita Rudner (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.”
Kabir (1398–1518) said by 1518 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever is truly alive must die. Look at the flowers; only plastic flowers never die.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“George: Gracie, those are beautiful flowers. Where did they come from? Gracie: Don't you remember, George? You said that if I went to visit Clara Bagley in the hospital I should be sure to take her flowers. So, when she wasn't looking, I did.”
Gracie Allen (1895–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comedic routine, quoted in American Radio Networks : A History (2009) by Jim Cox, p. 144
“And she said... "Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have been seen.”
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With equal sweetness the commissioned hours Shed light and dew upon both weeds and flowers. The weeds unthankful raise their vile heads high, Flaunting back insult to the gracious sky; While the dear flowers, wht fond humility, Uplift the eyelids of a starry eye In speechless homage, and, from grateful hearts, Perfume that homage all around imparts.”
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the children play And sit like flowers upon thy grave And crown with flowers,—that hardly have A briefer blooming-tide than they.”
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like to see flowers growing, but when they are gathered, they cease to please. I look on them as things rootless and perishable; their likeness to life makes me sad. I never offer flowers to those I love; I never wish to receive them from hands dear to me.”
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) said by 1855 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death was not. I lived in a simple drowse: Hands and hair moved through a dream of wakening blossoms. Rain sweetened the cave and the dove still called; The flowers leaned on themselves, the flowers in hollows; And love, love sang toward.”
Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Labour Party are going to bring in a law that means you can go everywhere you want in the country. I have checked this with two people and they both said it was true. People will be able to walk into your garden and pick your flowers. It is absurd. My garden is a blaze of flowers. I don't want anyone In there.”
Barbara Cartland (1901–2000) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by Alex Bellos for "Why I vote Conservative: 'Sleaze? Never heard of it'" The Guardian (2 April 1997), p. 16
“The flowers inside your body are more beautiful than the flowers outside - full with fragrance and love. They are the sunshine and the medicine of your soul. Oh, the lost one come back to the source. You will be happier than ever before.”
Amit Ray (born 1960) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ray 114 Chakra System: Names Locations and Functions (2018)
“The bees are very attentive to the flowers until their honey is done, and then they fly over them. I don't know if the flowers feel grateful to the bees, they are great fools if they do.”
Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“MIRRORMENT Birds are flowers flying and flowers perched birds.”
A. R. Ammons (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I sat there agape, looking at the flowers, and thought to myself, There are really good things about human beings. I mean, it's humans who discovered the beauty of flowers, and humans who admire them.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pretty girls are lovely as the flowers in May, but there are so many flowers in May.”
John Wyndham (1903–1969) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pt. 1, Ch. 1 - p.10 [Page numbers per the Michael Joseph 1960 hardback]
“Where my caravan has rested, Flowers I leave you on the grass. All the flowers of love and memory, You will find them when you pass.”
Edward Teschemacher (1876–1940) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Where My Caravan Has Rested", st. 1 (1910)
“flowers show various adaptations to attract s—in the form of colour, pattern or scent or a combination of these factors. Flowers which are pollinated by butterflies and moths are usually heavily scented, especially those which are visited at night.”
Heather Angel (photographer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Quick as a hummingbird is my love, Dipping into the hearts of flowers—She darts so eagerly, swiftly, sweetly, Dipping into the flowers of my heart...”
James Oppenheim (1882–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!”
Bryan Procter (1787–1874) said by 1874 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sea, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Also quoted by: Bryan W. Procter
“The hollow sea-shell, which for years hath stood On dusty shelves, when held against the ear Proclaims its stormy parent, and we hear The faint, far murmur of the breaking flood. We hear the sea. The Sea? It is the blood In our own veins, impetuous and near.”
Eugene Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sonnet. Sea-shell Murmurs, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Gather a shell from the strewn beach / And listen at its lips: they sigh / The same desire and mystery, / The echo of the…
“The sea. I bet you the sea might have ideas. Wouldn’t surprise me if the bastard ocean might have a little something to do with all this. Stands to reason, right? Taking back what’s its? Render unto sea, sir.”
China Miéville (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, Sussex, Sussex by the sea! Good old Sussex by the Sea! You may tell them all that we stand or fall For Sussex by the sea!”
William Ward-Higgs (1866–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the sand all alive, all alive, as the hatched sea-turtles made their dash for the sea, while the birds hovered and swooped to attack and hovered and—swooped to attack! They were diving down on the hatched sea-turtles, turning them over to expose their soft undersides, tearing the undersides open and rending and eating their flesh.”
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities. If they are not there, science cannot create them. If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Acceptance speech of the National Book Award for Nonfiction (1952); also in Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (1999) edited by Linda Lear, p. 91
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A ship is alive, and he is like a man, with a true man’s heart. Treat him well and care for him properly, and he will fight for you against the worst sea. He will fight to keep you alive even after the sea has long since given him his own deathstroke. Neglect him, though, ignore the small warnings he gives of danger, and he will drown you in a flat sea beneath a cloudless sky.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great inviolate place had an ancient permanence which the sea cannot claim. Who can say of a particular sea that it is old? Distilled by the sun, kneaded by the moon, it is renewed in a year, in a day, or in an hour. The sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people changed, yet Egdon remained.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like the surface of the sea was the mirror of Tuzun Thune; hard as the sea in the sun's slanting beams, in the darkness of the stars, where no eye can pierce her deeps; vast and mystic as the sea when the sun smites her in such way that the watcher's breath is caught at the glimpse of tremendous abysses. So was the mirror in which Kull gazed.”
Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Kingdom is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. (8)”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the sea you've got to be constantly sort of alert. It's worse in the sea [than anywhere else in the animal kingdom]. In the sea you've got an enemy behind every rock.”
Karl Pilkington (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That evening I met a black witch with a red cat, walking on a headland above the sea. I had reached the sea unexpectedly, but the sea is unexpected in any event to one who has never known it. You think it land at first, or sky, and penultimately mist. Then you realize a vast azure mass of water lies like a dragon in the sun’s last rays, breathing and shifting on the beaches.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Acquiring carnal knowledge is like swimming in the sea ... The sea's so beautiful to look at, so wonderful to swim in, but you must never bathe unless it's safe. People so often drown in the sea and some coasts are so very dangerous, ... like the Coast of Gower.'”
Susan Howatch (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Money is not our concern. Our concern is the sea. The sea is not persuaded by bankers’ drafts and stocks of bullion; the sea respects nothing but the grit and willpower of dedicated seamen.”
Adam Roberts (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Weapons change; it is the ability to command the sea that matters. The Battle of Britain, like the defeat of the Armada, was fought for command of the sea. The work of Bomber Command, like the invasion of Europe, was an exercise of offensive power from our inviolable sea-base.”
Arthur Bryant (1899–1985) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to The Times (24 January 1947), p. 5
“And when she was finished they laid her in earth Flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her... She, so light, barely pressed the earth down How much pain it took to make her as light as that!”
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To my mother" [Meiner Mutter] (May 1920), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 49
“While we look forward to a new heaven, let’s first consider the new earth, for the new earth will indeed be like heaven on earth. We will live on a restored earth.”
“The dead do not need to rise. They are a part of the earth now and the earth can never be conquered. For the earth endureth forever...Those who have entered it honorably, and no man ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the American Dead in Spain", New Masses (February 14, 1939)
“The Earth gives us life, not the American government. The earth gives us life, not the multi-national corporate government. The Earth gives us life. We need to have the Earth. We must have it, otherwise our life will be no more. So we must resist what they do.”
John Trudell (1946–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth was their mother, but her land and water could never be desecrated; blasted open and polluted by man, but never desecrated. Man only desecrated himself in such acts; puny humans could not affect the integrity of Earth. Earth always was and would ever be sacred. Mother Earth might be ravaged by the Destroyers, but she still loved the people. (Part Five, Book One: The Foes)”
Leslie Marmon Silko (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The property of attraction is inherent in the Earth. By this property the Earth attracts any unsupported heavy thing towards it: The thing appears to be falling [but it is in a state of being drawn to the Earth]. The ethereal expanse being equally outspread all around, where can the Earth fall? (Goladhyaya III.6)”
Bhāskara II (1114–1185) said by 1185 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source