Moi was on one of her excursions when she saw a sunflower peaking over a big fence like a gigantic happy face. It just seemed to be smiling at everyone who passed. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar” are sunflowers.
“Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and 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
“And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood.”
William Cullen Bryant
“The gaudy leonine sunflower
Hangs black and barren on its stalk
And down the windy garden walk
The dead leaves scatter – hour by hour”
~Oscar Wilde
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you.”
Maori Proverb
“Light-enchanted sunflower, thou
Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun’s revolving splendour.”
Pedro Calderon de la Barca,
“As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.” Henry Ward Beecher
“True friends are
like bright sunflowers
that never fade
away, even over
distance and time.”
Marie Williams Johnstone
“The Sunflow’r, thinking ’twas for him foul shame
To nap by daylight, strove t’ excuse the blame;
It was not sleep that made him nod, he said,
But too great weight and largeness of his head.”
Abraham Cowley
The Sunflower by William Blake
Ah, Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller’s journal done;
Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!
“The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy.”
Thomas Bulfinch
“I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers.”
Vincent Van Gogh
“Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.”
Helen Keller
“It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear!
Oh the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose!”
~ Thomas Moore
drwilda 