“The dangerous plant did not flower in every generation, they said. ”

“Briers do not become flowers when there is no danger present. While the forest has flowering plants, it also has trees and thorned plants. Each is suited to exist as it does and does not wish to become something it is not.”

“a generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men, of men unduly divorced from the slow process of nature, of men in whom every vital impulse slowly withers as though they were cut flowers in a vase.”

“A flower is a plant's way of making love.”

“Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

“The average lawn is an interesting beast: people plant it, then douse it with artificial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides to make it grow and to keep it uniform-all so that they can hack and mow what they encouraged to grow. And woe to the small yellow flower that rears its head!”