50 flower quotes that spread a little sunshine

As former First Lady Claudia Johnson (better known as Lady Bird Johnson) once said, "Where flowers bloom so does hope."

No truer words have been spoken, and that's because there's something inherently spectacular about flowers and our special relationship with them.

We use flowers to mark life and loss, as well as weddings, graduations, anniversaries, birthdays and just about every other major life milestone. Grown in gardens, they bring joy and quiet meditation. Set upon on our tables, they light up a room.

In fact, as the great poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The earth laughs in flowers."

If you like that quote, you're sure to enjoy the rest of these flower quotes written and spoken by notable figures like William Shakespeare, Claude Monet, Walt Whitman, John Lennon and other luminaries.

From short flower quotes to post on Instagram to sayings on roses, gardens and other blossom-related subjects, there's a little something here for every kind of flower enthusiast.

So, read on to find the right flower quote to suit whatever occasion you're looking for and whichever you choose, it's guaranteed to bring a little sunshine to someone's day.

• "I must have flowers, always, and always." – Claude Monet

• “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

• "The earth laughs in flowers." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.” – Henry Ward Beecher

• "Perfumes are the feelings of flowers." – Heinrich Heine

• “Sweet April showers do spring May flowers.” – Thomas Tusser

• “Where flowers bloom so does hope.” – Lady Bird Johnson

• “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” – Oscar Wilde

• "Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you." – Walt Whitman

• “Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair.” – Susan Polis Schutz

• "Love is the flower you've got to let grow." – John Lennon

• "I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one." – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

• "The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, For that sweet odor which doth in it live." – William Shakespeare, Sonnet 54

• "One person's weed is another person's wildflower." – Susan Wittig Albert, "An Unthymely Death and Other Garden Mysteries"

• "Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same." – Helen Keller

• “Flowers with the sweetest odors filled all the sunny air, and not alone refreshed the sense, but stole the mind from care.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• "Surely the flowers of a hundred spring are simply the souls of beautiful things!" – L.M. Montgomery, "The Watchman and Other Poems"

• “Just living is not enough ... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Andersen

• "In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends." Okakura Kakuzo, "The Book of Tea"

• "What a lovely thing a rose is!" – Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Naval Treaty"

• "Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star." – Paul Dirac

• "I love you like the plant that does not bloom and carries in itself, hidden, the light of those flowers." – Pablo Neruda, "100 Love Sonnets"

• "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." – William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet"

• "The Flower that once has blown forever dies." – Omar Khayyam

• "I keep stars in my pockets wear daisies in my hair but I tuck your tenderly in the folds of my heart and take you everywhere." – Melody Lee, "Vine: Book of Poetry"

• "A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love." – Max Muller

• "Life is the flower for which love is the honey." – Victor Hugo

• "Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower." – John Harrigan

• Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art.” – Louisa May Alcott

• "When the flower blooms, The bees come uninvited." – Ramakrishna

• "Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." – Gérard de Nerval

• "For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair." – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• "The flower in the vase smiles, but no longer laughs." – Malcolm de Chazal

• "A weed is but an unloved flower." – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

• "If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment." – Georgia O'Keeffe

• "The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in earth and manure." – D.H. Lawrence

• "By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower." – Rabindranath Tagore

• “If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.” – Thérèse of Lisieux

• "To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow." – Audrey Hepburn

• "Every flower blooms in its own time." – Ken Petti

• "Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed." – Walt Whitman

• “Garden as though you will live forever.” – William Kent

• "I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." – Emma Goldman

• "To be a flower, is profound responsibility." – Emily Dickinson

• "Love is like wildflowers; it's often found in the most unlikely places." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "There are always flowers for those who want to see them." – Henri Matisse

• "Love planted a rose, and the world turned sweet." – Katharine Lee Bates

• "If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden." – Frances Hodgson Burnett, "The Secret Garden"

• "You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." – Walter Hagen

• "To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour." – William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

This article was originally published on TODAY.com