Quotations About Roses

More than any other flower, the rose have long been a source of fascination and inspiration for cultures around the world. The rose has captivated and enchanted man's imaginations. Poets and writers from different culture have been inspired by the beauty and fragrance of the rose, the association of the rose with beauty, romance and perfection dates back to some of the earliest societies and continues to this day. 

 I hope you will enjoy reading some of the classic and inspiring quotes about the rose.

• What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. - William Shakespeare

• You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• Life is a rose, beware of the thorns. - Unknown

• The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness. - Therese of Lisieux

• A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom. - Chinese Proverb

• Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose. - Turkish Proverb

• Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time. -Edmund Spenser

• But he that dares not grasp the thorn. Should never crave the rose. - Anne Bronte

• The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose. - Kahlil Gibran

• The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses. - Ovid

• You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• Can anyone remember love? It's like trying to summon up the smell of roses in a cellar. You might see a rose, but never smell the perfume. - Arthur Miller

• Love is like the wild rose-briar;

  Friendship like the holly-tree.

  The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,

  But which will bloom most constantly? - Emily Bronte

• The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. - William Shakespeare - Sonnet 54

• I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall. - Eleonor Roosevelt

• There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. - Henri Matisse

• He who wants a rose must respect the thorn. -Persian Proverb

• A single rose can be my garden, a single friend my world. - Leo Buscaglia

• Marriage is like life - it is a field of battle, not a bed of roses. - Robert Louis Stevenson

• And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies. - Christopher Marlowe

• Thorns and roses grow on the same tree. - Turkish Proverb

• Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. - Gertrude Stein

• Oh, my love is like a red, red rose, that's newly sprung in June; Oh, my love is like the melody, that's sweetly played in tune. - Robert Burns

• Pictures of Roses

  A small collection of photographs of roses and some interesting rose trivia.