I am following Nature without being able to grasp her . . . . I perhaps owe having become a read more

I am following Nature without being able to grasp her . . . . I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

Sweet letters of the angel tongue,
I've loved ye long and well,
And never have failed in read more

Sweet letters of the angel tongue,
I've loved ye long and well,
And never have failed in your fragrance sweet
To find some secret spell,--
A charm that has bound me with witching power,
For mine is the old belief,
That midst your sweets and midst your bloom,
There's a soul in every leaf!

Every flower is a soul blossoming in Nature.

Every flower is a soul blossoming in Nature.

Big doesn't necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren't better than violets.

Big doesn't necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren't better than violets.

A wedding is just like a funeral except that you get to smell your own flowers.

A wedding is just like a funeral except that you get to smell your own flowers.

Flowers are words
Which even a babe may understand.

Flowers are words
Which even a babe may understand.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume read more

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows,
The timid, bashful violet
read more

I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows,
The timid, bashful violet
Or the royal-hearted rose:
The pansy in purple dress,
The pink with cheek of red,
Or the faint, fair heliotrope, who hangs,
Like a bashful maid her head.

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding.