At dawn I asked the lotus,
'What is the meaning of life?'
Slowly she opened her hand
with nothing in it.
- Debra Woolard Bender
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.
- Christopher Marlowe
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson
flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile, some have a sad expression, some are pensive and diffident, others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.
- Henry Ward Beecher