Chrysanthemums Quotes

• I look for myself but find no one. I belong to the chrysanthemum hour of bright flowers placed in tall vases. I should make an ornament of my soul.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Flower, Soul, Ornaments

  Fernando Pessoa (2010). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.134, Profile Books

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• Why don't you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Sarcastic, Humorous, Looks

  92 Copy quote

• Every year, in November, at the season that follows the hour of the dead, the crowning and majestic hours of autumn, I go to visit the chrysanthemums ... They are indeed, the most universal, the most diverse of flowers.

  Maurice Maeterlinck

  Flower, Autumn, Years

  Maurice Maeterlinck (1912). “Hours of Gladness”

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• A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell.

  William J. Johnston

  Names, Luck, Would Be

  44 Copy quote

• Chrysanthemums from gilded argosy
  Unload their gaudy senseless merchandise.

  Oscar Wilde

  Gilded, Merchandise, Gaudy

  41 Copy quote

• I seek and don’t find myself. I belong to chrysanthemum hours, neatly lined up in flowerpots.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Hours

  Fernando Pessoa (1996). “The Book of Disquietude: By Bernardo Soares, Assistant Bookkeeper in the City of Lisbon”

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• A grower of chrysanthemums awaited a visit from the emperor, who was coming to enjoy his blossoms, of which there were hundreds in bloom. The grower selected one magnificent specimen, then cut down all the others, leaving this one perfect flower. The emperor arrived and sat for several hours quietly gazing at this beautiful flower, letting its beauty have its way with him. Can you imagine being so caught up in appreciation of one flower that everything else fades into the background?

  John Templeton

  Beautiful, Appreciation, Flower

  26 Copy quote

• In lantern-light My yellow Chrysanthemums Lost all their color

  Yosa Buson

  Fall, Light, Color

  17 Copy quote

• The plants which stand next to dwarf trees in importance with the Chinese are certainly chrysanthemums, which they manage extremely well, perhaps better than they do any other plant.

  Robert Fortune

  Dwarves, Tree, Chinese

  Robert Fortune (1847). “Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China: Including a Visit to the Tea, Silk, and Cotton Countries; with an Account of the Agriculture and Horticulture of the Chinese, New Plants, Etc”, p.143

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• It was a day as different from other days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever.

  John Steinbeck

  Dog, Cat, Different

  John Steinbeck (2008). “The Winter of Our Discontent”, p.201, Penguin

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• I search and can't find myself. I belong in chrysanthemum time, sharp in calla lily elongations. God made my soul into an ornamental thing.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Soul, Lilies, Made

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa, p. 140, 1982.

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• The chrysanthemums' astringent fragrance comes
  Each year to disguise the clanking mechanism
  Of machine within machine within machine.

  Wallace Stevens

  Nature, Years, Machines

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play”, p.157, Vintage

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• Some brave chrysanthemums still stood in the country gardens, but they looked like bedraggled survivors of a battle, barely able to hold their tattered banners upright. October was at the gates and autumn was in full retreat.

  Patricia Moyes

  Country, Autumn, Garden

  19 Copy quote

• The autumn breeze rises on the shore at Fukiage- and those white chrysanthemums are they flowers? or not? or only breakers on the beach?

  Sugawara no Michizane

  Beach, Flower, Fall

  18 Copy quote

• She liked anything orange: leaves; some moons; marigolds; chrysanthemums; cheese; pumpkin, both in pie and out; orange juice; marmalade. Orange is bright and demanding. You can't ignore orange things. She once saw an orange parrot in the pet store and had never wanted anything so much in her life. She would have named it Halloween and fed it butterscotch. Her mother said butterscotch would make a bird sick and, besides, the dog would certainly eat it up. September never spoke to the dog again — on principle.

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Mother, Dog, Halloween

  Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.16, Macmillan

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• The breezes taste Of apple peel. The air is full Of smells to feel- Ripe fruit, old footballs, Burning brush, New books, erasers, Chalk, and such. The bee, his hive, Well-honeyed hum, And Mother cuts Chrysanthemums. Like plates washed clean With suds, the days Are polished with A morning haze.

  John Updike

  Football, Mother, Morning

  16 Copy quote

• We spent the first night of our honeymoon in a country hotel, with Tudor architecture oak beams, and floors which sloped, of the Queen-Elizabeth-Slept-Here variety. There were old tennis-courts - the Tudor kind where Henry VIII was said to have played; and gardens filled with winter heather, jasmine and yellow chrysanthemums. [...] So that first night together was spent in the ancient bedroom with the tiny leaded paned windows, through which shafts of moonlight touched the room with a dreamlike radiance [...]

  Jean Plaidy

  Country, Queens, Winter

  24 Copy quote

• You named your sword Fire? Fire? What kind of a boring name is that? You might as well name your sword 'Blazing Blade' and be done with it. Fire indeed. Humph. Wouldn't you rather have a sword called Sheepbiter or Chrysanthemum Cleaver or something else with imagination?

  Christopher Paolini

  Fire, Names, Imagination

  Christopher Paolini (2014). “The Inheritance Cycle Complete Collection: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance”, p.2259, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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