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, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers

Earth laughs in flowers. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hamatreya”

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. – Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. – Basho