What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare
One of the most attractive things about
the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
- Henry David Thoreau
A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar.
Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.
We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.
- Diane Ackerman
Deep in their roots,
All flowers keep the light.
- Theodore Roethke