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Orchids Quotes

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Orchids Quotes

“And there's my poor endeavoring human desk at which I sit so often during the day, facing south, the papers and pencils and the coffee cup with sprigs of alpine fir and a weird orchid of the heights wiltable in one day– My Beechnut gum, my tobacco pouch, dusts, pitiful pulp magazines I have to read, view south to all those snowy majesties– The waiting is long. On Starvation Ridge little sticks Are trying to grow.”

LonelinessCoffeeWriters LifeJournalingOrchidsBeat GenerationBeatnikMountaintopWriters Room
Book:Desolation Angels
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“The word comes from Greek mythology. Orchis was the son of a satyr and a nymph. During a feast to celebrate Bacchus, Orchis drank too much wine and tried to force his attentions on a priestess. Bacchus was very displeased, and reacted by having Orchis torn to pieces. The pieces were scattered far and wide, and wherever one landed, an orchid grew." Pausing, she leaned away for a few seconds, reaching for something. Something soft and delicate touched his cracked lips.... She was applying salve with a fingertip. "Most people don't know that vanilla is the fruit of an orchid vine. We keep one in a glasshouse on the estate- it's so long that it grows sideways on the wall. When one of the flowers is full grown, it opens in the morning, and if it isn't pollinated, it closes in the evening, never to open again. The white blossoms, and the vanilla pods within them, have the sweetest scent in the world...”

Greek MythologyVanillaOrchidsHelen RavenelRhys And Helen
Book:Cold-Hearted Rake
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“Nearly all human cultures plant gardens, and the garden itself has ancient religious connections. For a long time, I've been interested in pre-Christian European beliefs, and the pagan devotions to sacred groves of trees and sacred springs. My German translator gave me a fascinating book on the archaeology of Old Europe, and in it I discovered ancient artifacts that showed that the Old European cultures once revered snakes, just as we Pueblo Indian people still do. So I decided to take all these elements - orchids, gladiolus, ancient gardens, Victorian gardens, Native American gardens, Old European figures of Snake-bird Goddesses - and write a novel about two young sisters at the turn of the century.”

InspirationOrchidsGardensPre Christian EuropeAncient GardensGladiolusNative American SymbolismSnake Bird Goddess
Book:Gardens in the Dunes
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“[Jürgen Habermas' obituary to friend and philosopher, Richard Rorty] One small autobiographical piece by Rorty bears the title 'Wild Orchids and Trotsky.' In it, Rorty describes how as a youth he ambled around the blooming hillside in north-west New Jersey, and breathed in the stunning odour of the orchids. Around the same time he discovered a fascinating book at the home of his leftist parents, defending Leon Trotsky against Stalin. This was the origin of the vision that the young Rorty took with him to college: philosophy is there to reconcile the celestial beauty of orchids with Trotsky's dream of justice on earth. Nothing is sacred to Rorty the ironist. Asked at the end of his life about the 'holy', the strict atheist answered with words reminiscent of the young Hegel: 'My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law.”

LoveInspirationalPhilosophyEarthLawDeathHopeJusticeAtheismHolySacredAtheistAutobiographyDescendantsHegelObituaryOrchidsStalinTrotskyJoseph StalinLeon TrotskyIronistRichard RortyGlobal CivilizationRichard Rorty ObituaryStrict Atheist
Author:Jürgen Habermas
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“When the Devil was a woman, When Lilith wound Her ebony hair in heavy braids, And framed Her pale features all 'round With Botticelli's tangled thoughts, When she, smiling softly, Ringed all her slim fingers In golden bands with brilliant stones, When she leafed through Villiers And loved Huysmans, When she fathomed Maeterlinck's silence And bathed her Soul In Gabriel d'Annunzio's colors, She even laughed And as she laughed, The little princess of serpents sprang Out of her mouth. Then the most beautiful of she-devils Sought after the serpent, She seized the Queen of Serpents With her ringed finger, So that she wound and hissed Hissed, hissed And spit venom. In a heavy copper vase; Damp earth, Black damp earth She scattered upon it. Lightly her great hands caressed This heavy copper vase All around, Her pale lips lightly sang Her ancient curse. Like a children's rhyme her curses chimed, Soft and languid Languid as the kisses, That the damp earth drank From her mouth, But life arose in the vase, And tempted by her languid kisses, And tempted by those sweet tones, From the black earth slowly there crept, Orchids - When the most beloved Adorns her pale features before the mirror All 'round with Botticelli's adders, There creep sideways from the copper vase, Orchids- Devil's blossoms which the ancient earth, Wed by Lilith's curse To serpent's venom, has borne to the light Orchids- The Devil's blossoms- "The Diary Of An Orange Tree”

DecadenceOrchidsLilithOrchidBotticelliVilliers De L Isle AdamGabriele D AnnunzioJoris Karl HuysmansMaurice Maeterlinck
Book:Nachtmahr: Strange Tales
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“When I was suddenly thrust into what everyone calls menopause (Orchids) earlier than my body planned, I decided someone needed to take charge on so many levels. It was time to not only change the vernacular, but to speak up and say "Hey! This isn't an old lady's disease! We aren't old! We are strong and dammit, we are beautiful and sexy too!”

DiseaseAgingGrandmaHormonesOld LadyMenopauseAging GracefullyOrchidsGrand MotherChange Of LifeHormonal Issues
Book:Getting Over Your Ovaries: How to Make 'The Change of Life' Your Bitch
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“George thrust into Alma's hand a lithograph of a spotted 'Catasetum.' The orchid had been rendered so magnificently that it seemed to grow off the page. Its lips were spotted red against yellow, and appeared moist, like living flesh. Its leaves were lush and thick, and its bulbous roots looked as though one could shake actual soil off them. Before Alma could thoroughly take in the beauty, George handed her another stunning print- a 'Peristeria barkeri,' with its tumbling golden blossoms so fresh they nearly trembled. Whoever had tinted this lithograph had been a master of texture as well as color; the petals resembled unshorn velvet, and touches of albumen on their tips gave each blossom a hint of dew. Then George handed her another print, and Alma could not help but gasp. Whatever this orchid was, Alma had never seen it before. Its tiny pink lobes looked like something a fairy would don for a fancy dress ball.”

ArtworkColorsOrchidsGenus SpeciesBlossomsIllustrationsTexturesLithographs
Book:The Signature of All Things
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“I took a cautious step inside, marveling at the sight before me. A vast conservatory awaited, or what 'once' was a conservatory. Sunlight beamed through the enormous glass roof. I realized that its position at the center of the house precluded its visibility from below. In awe, my heart beating wildly, I lingered in an arbor covered with bright pink bougainvillea, with a trunk so thick, it was larger than my waist. Most of it had died off, but a single healthy vine remained, and it burst with magenta blossoms. I could smell citrus warming in the sunlight, and I immediately noticed the source: an old potted lemon tree in the far corner. 'This must have been Lady Anna's.' I walked along the leaf-strewn pathway to a table that had clearly once showcased dozens of orchids. Now it was an orchid graveyard. Only their brown, shriveled stems remained, but I could imagine how they'd looked in their prime. I smiled when I picked up a tag from one of the pots. 'Lady Fiona Bixby. She must have given them her own names.' Perhaps there hadn't been anything sinister going on in the orchard, after all. Lady Anna was clearly a creative spirit, and maybe that played out in her gardens and the names she gave to her flowers and trees.”

OrchidsLadyConservatoryBougainvilleaAddison SinclairAnna Livingston
Book:The Last Camellia
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“I had come to love the space, and I could see why Lady Anna had too. The orchids were positively glorious. She'd tagged each flower with its proper botanical name, but I favored the pet names she'd given each bloom. For instance, a stunning pink 'Cattleya' was named "Lady Catalina." And a yellow 'Oncidium,' which to me looked like a flock of ladies in fluffy party dresses, was called "Lady Aralia of the Bayou.”

OrchidsConservatoryGenus SpeciesFlora LewisAnna Livingston
Book:The Last Camellia
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“Is that an orchid?" I asked, pointing to a particularly unattractive small brown plant. "Maxillaria tenuifolia," said Sonali. "One of my favorites. This little brown orchid is a species. Not as spectacular as a hybrid, but very satisfying nonetheless. Its charms are quite powerful. Come closer and smell it." I leaned over the ugly brown plant. "Coconut pie! How is that possible?" "Wonderful, isn't it? She doesn't need bright, flashy colors or spectacular sprays of flowers. Her pollinators, the moths, come out at night. She uses her coconut scent to guide and entice the little moth in much the way we use perfume to entice men in nightclubs and cafés." Sonali winked at me. "You can learn much about how an orchid is pollinated by the way it looks. White, pink, and pale-green flowers usually get pollinated at night, since those colors are easily seen under moonlight. The little moth sneaks up on the flower in the middle of the night like a lover. He lands on her, pollinates her, and then leaves. We've all had that experience, yes?" "Yes," I said, thinking of Exley. "Brightly colored orchids, on the other hand, are pollinated by butterflies and birds. Butterflies prefer red and orange. Bees love orange and yellow all the way through to ultraviolet." "Just like certain men like certain color clothing," I said. "Yes, colored petals are the clothing of flowers. The insect must find a way through those petals to get what he wants, like a man brushing his hand through the layers of a woman's skirt.”

ColorsPetalsSexual AttractionOrchidsPollinators
Book:Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire
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“Orchids manufacture their intricate devices from the common components of ordinary flowers, parts usually fitted for very different functions. If God had designed a beautiful machine to reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not have used a collection of parts generally fashioned for other purposes. Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. Thus, they must have evolved from ordinary flowers.”

IfsMadeDifferentBeautifulUsedPurposeCommonAtheismFlowerOrdinaryIdealsMachinesFunctionAvailablePositive AtheismCollectionsDevicesEngineersComponentsJuryIntricateRiggedOrchids
Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
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“A flower is a daisy chain, a graduation, a valentine; a flower is New Year's Eve and an orchid in your hair; a flower is a single geranium blooming in a tin can on a murky city fire-escape; an acre of roses at the Botanical Gardens; and the first gold crocus of spring! ... a flower is a birth, a wedding, a leaving of this life.”

YearsFirstsCitiesFireFlowerHairBirthSpringGardenGoldRoseLeavingChainsThis LifeNew YearValentineDaisiesNew Years EveAcresTinBloomingOrchidsFire EscapesTin CansCrocuses
Author:Jean Hersey
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“Tightly-plotted, well-researched and beautifully drawn, this book is a real delight. Garen Ewing's mix of engaging characters, exciting old-school adventure, attractive ligne claire artwork and fluid storytelling makes The Rainbow Orchid easily one of the best graphic novels of the year.”

YearsWellsBookRealCharacterSchoolNovelAdventureExcitingDelightStorytellingAttractiveRainbowEngagingGraphicFluidArtworkOld SchoolClaireGraphic NovelsOrchids
Author:Bryan Talbot
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“Somewhere close I knew spear-nosed bats flew through the tree crowns in search of fruit, palm vipers coiled in ambush in the roots of orchids, jaguars walked the river's edge; around them eight hundred species of trees stood, more than are native to all of North America; and a thousand species of butterflies, 6 percent of the entire world fauna, waited for the dawn.”

WorldAmericaTreeThousandPercentHundredRiversRootsSpeciesFruitEdgesEightDawnNativeButterflyCrownsBatsPalmsFlewSpearsNorth AmericaBiodiversityOrchidsAmbushVipersJaguars
Author:E. O. Wilson
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“We humans think we are smart, but an orchid, for example, knows how to produce noble, symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell. Compared with their knowledge, ours is not worth much at all. We should bow deeply before the orchid and the snail and join our palms reverently before the monarch butterfly and the magnolia tree. The feeling of respect for all species will help us recognize the noblest nature in ourselves.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldHumansWellsHelpingFeelingsBeautifulNatureKnowledgeKnow HowTreeExampleProduceFlowerSmartRespectSpeciesNobleButterflyBowsShellsPalmsMonarchsSnailOrchidsMagnoliasMonarch ButterflySymmetrical
Book:Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings
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“Once you start carrying your own suitcase, paying your own bills, running your own show, you've done something to yourself that makes you one of those women men like to call 'a pal' and 'a good sport,' the kind of woman they tell their troubles to. But you've cut yourself off from the orchids and the diamond bracelets, except those you buy yourself.”

MenKindDoneShowsRunningSportsCuttingTroubleBillsDiamondSuitcasesPalsBraceletOrchidsGood Sports
Author:Sophie Tucker
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“I was left alone there in the company of the orchids, roses and violets, which, like people waiting beside you who do not know you, preserved a silence which their individuality as living things made all the more striking, and warmed themselves in the heat of a glowing coal fire.”

PeopleKnowsMadeLeftWaitingSilenceCompanyFireRoseIndividualityHeatCoalVioletLiving ThingsGlowingLeft AloneBeside YouOrchids
Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume II: Within a Budding Grove (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“Nothing could be taken for granted. Women who loved you tried to cut your throat, while women who didn't even know your name scrubbed your back. Witches could sound like Katharine Hepburn and your best friend could try to strangle you. Smack in the middle of an orchid there might be a blob of jello and inside a Mickey Mouse doll, a fixed and radiant star.”

KnowsTryingMightNamesStarsSoundTakenCuttingMiddleGrantedFixedWitchThroatMiceDollsRadiantYour Best FriendTaken For GrantedSmackMickeyHepburnOrchidsJello
Author:Toni Morrison
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“If he’d been any other man and i'd been any other girl, I’d have called the narrowing of his heavy-lidded dark eyes lust. But he was Barrons and I was Mac, and a blossoming of lust was about as likely as orchids blooming in Antarctica”

IfsMenEyeGirlDarkHeavyLustMacsOther GirlBloomingBlossomingOrchidsAntarcticaJericho BarronsDark Eyes
Book:The Fever Series 7-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever, Iced, Burned
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“She's alone, they kept telling themselves, and surely she danced in no one's arms, yet somehow that seemed to matter less and less. As the night went on, and clarinet and coyote call mingled beyond the lantern light, the magic of their own powder-blue jackets and orchids seemed to fade, and it came to them in small sensations that they were more alone than she was.”

MatterLightNightMagicArmsBlueSensationsFadesJacketsPowderLanternsCoyotesOrchidsClarinetLantern Light
Book:The Stargirl Collection
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“One wants to move through life with elegance and grace, blossoming infrequently but with exquisite taste, and perfect timing, like a rare bloom, a zebra orchid... One wants... But one so seldom gets what one wants, does one?”

WantDoeMovingPerfectGraceTasteTimingEleganceExquisiteBlossomingOrchidsZebrasPerfect Timing
Book:Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition
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“You send me all these roses. Every time I think the last bouquet has arrived, finally, another turns up. I’m running out of vases. I didn’t know roses came in so many colors. You say they’re the perfect symbols of love because they have thorns and love is pain. I say life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. And you don’t get it. You say you love me, but you don’t speak my language. You don’t even realize I’m an orchid girl.”

ThinkingKnowsRunningPainLastsLife IsTurnsGirlSpeakLanguageRealizingPerfectLove IsColorAnd LoveRoseSellingSymbolsThornsVasesBouquetsOrchidsHighnessLove Is PainLife Is PainSelling Something
Author:Erin Morgenstern
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“The splendor of a human heart that trusts it is loved unconditionally gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony”, Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.”

GivingHumansHeartJesusPleasureMillionsSightDiedFlightButterflyScentHuman HeartVansSymphonySplendorCathedralsChapelEnchantingSunflowerOrchidsWestminsterSistine Chapel
Author:Brennan Manning
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