“Look before you leap, for snakes among sweet flowers do creep.”
“If we analyze or dissect a flower, looking for the flower among its parts, we shall not find it ... And yet, we cannot deny the existence of flowers and of their sweet scent.”
“Look twice before you leap.”
“Death and loss, they plague you. So do memories. Like the Mississippi's incessant slap against the levees, they creep up with deceptive sweetness before grabbing your heart and pulling it under.”
“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers...”
“A snake must be treated as a snake, forgiving it every time it showed you its fangs, will not transform into a garland of flowers.”