72 Quotes About Roses: Life, Love and Thorns

Roses are beautiful and classic flowers that have captivated people for centuries. They have inspired countless poets, writers, composers, songwriters and artists over the years with their elegant blooms and contrasting thorns. We collected over 70 of some of the best sentiments and quotes about roses that cover the topics of life, love, beauty and thorns.   

Quotes About Roses and Life

The life cycle of a rose can be related back to our own lives. We go through phases of growth, pruning and rough winters that can leave us bare but in the end, we (like roses) will regrow and prosper again. Use these quotes about roses and life to pull inspiration from these beautiful blooms. 

1. “My life is part humor, part roses, part thorns.” – Bret Michaels

2. “It’s the time that you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important…People have forgotten this truth, but you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

3. “We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie

4. “Life is like a rose garden — watch for the thorns and keep the pest dust handy” – Anonymous

5. “A rose dreams of enjoying the company of bees, but none appears. The sun asks: ‘Aren’t you tired of waiting?’ ‘Yes,’ answers the rose, ‘but if I close my petals, I will wither and die.’” – Paulo Coelho

6. “The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.” – Kahlil Gibran

7. “Forgiveness is the scent that the rose leaves on the heel that crushes it.” – Anonymous

8. “Take time to smell the roses.” – Proverb

9. “True friendship is like a rose, we don’t realize its beauty until it fades.” – Anonymous

10. “Truths and roses have thorns about them.” – Henry David Thoreau

11. “The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change: Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.” – Paulo Coelho

12. “The world is a rose, smell it, and pass it to your friends.” – Persian Proverb

13. “Those who don’t pick roses in summer won’t pick them in winter either.” – German Proverb

Quotes About Roses and Love

Valentine’s Day and anniversaries are flooded with roses — for good reason. The symbolism of red roses lends them to be the ultimate romantic flower. Not all roses represent romance, though: different colors have different meanings, making them an appropriate gift for other loved ones as well on celebrations like Mother’s Day and birthdays. 

14. “True love is like little roses, sweet, fragrant in small doses.” – Ana Claudia Antunes

15. “When love came first to earth, the Spring spread rose beds to receive him.” – Thomas Campbell

16. “If you enjoy the fragrance of a rose, you must accept the thorns which it bears.” – Isaac Hayes

17. “A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.” – Chinese Proverb

18. “Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.” – Mark Overby

19. “A life filled with love, must have some thorns, but a life empty of love will have no roses.” – Anonymous

20. “Love is a rose, but you’d better not pick it, only grows when it’s on the vine. Handful of thorns and you know you’ve missed it. Lose your love when you say the word mine.” – Linda Ronstadt

21. “A relationship is like a rose. How long it lasts, no one knows.” – Rob Cella

22. “A woman is like a rose…If you take good care of her, you will see love blossom.” – Anonymous

23. “There may be many flowers in one’s life…but only one rose.” – Anonymous

24. “Love and a red rose can’t be hid.” – Thomas Holcroft

25. “The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove.” – John Boyle O’Reilly

26. “One rose is enough for the dawn.” – Edmond Jabes

27. “If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I’d be picking roses for a lifetime.” – Swedish Proverb

28. “This love is the rose that blooms forever.” – Rumi

29. “My love is like a rose divided into two, the leaves I give to others, but the rose I give to you.” – Anonymous

30. “Roses are red, violets are blue, I’ll never love someone the way I love you.” – Anonymous

Quotes About Roses and Thorns

This collection of quotes about roses and thorns represents the duality of the highs and lows and the good and bad that you encounter in life. As beautiful as they are, every rose is accompanied by damaging, unwelcoming thorns.

31. “No rose without a thorn.” – French Proverb

32. “A rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorn.” – Rumi

33. “But he that dares not grasp the thorn. Should never crave the rose.” – Anne Bronte

34. “The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.” – Ovid

35. “Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Karr

36. “Thorns and roses grow on the same tree.” – Turkish Proverb

37. “Discipline trains you to put up with disappointments, every rose has a thorn.” – Sai Baba

38. “When life throws thorns, hunt for roses.” – Anonymous

39. “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” – Abraham Lincoln

40. “I’d rather let you cover all my roads with thorns than with dead roses.” – Nema Al-Araby

41. “The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.” – Saadi

42. “Roses fall, but the thorns remain.” – Dutch Proverb

43. “A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom.” – Chinese Proverb

44. “A rose, isn’t quite as beautiful as it once was, when after its thorn pricks you.” – Anthony Liccione

Quotes About Roses and Beauty

Roses are the epitome of beauty, from their dazzling color combinations and their sweet scent to their rows of delicate petals. They make a stunning addition to a garden or gift — these quotes about roses and beauty are a great way to show someone that you honor their inner and outer radiance.

45. “Rose never propagandize its fragrant, but its own fragrance spreads surrounding.” – Sukarno

46. “If the rose is beautiful flower, it is also because it opens itself.” – Charles De Leusse

47. “Real beauty is in the fragility of your petals. A rose that never wilts isn’t a rose at all.” – Crystal Woods

48. “Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.” – W. Somerset Maugham

49. “Beauty without virtue is like a rose without scent.” – Anonymous

50. “What a lovely thing a rose is!” – Arthur Conan Doyle

51. “There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

52. “The Rose is without an explanation; She blooms, because She blooms.” – Angelus Silesius

Funny Quotes About Roses

With all of the serious symbolism and quotes about roses, there’s still a lighter and more humorous side to them. Some of the funny rose quotes and sayings below are twists on classic rose quotes and others take an original approach to help you crack a smile. 

53. “I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” – Emma Goldman

54. “If you really screw up, send roses.” – Letitia Baldrige

55. “Smell the roses. Smell the coffee. Whatever it is that makes you happy.” – Rita Moreno

56. “You’d get a lot more work done if you didn’t stop and smell the roses so often.” – Anonymous

57. “A rose is a rose is a rose.” – Gertrude Stein

58. “The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviousy a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.” – Salvador Dalí

59. “Roses are red, violets are blue, but I wouldn’t know since I don’t get them from you.” – Anonymous

60. “I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.” – Roland A. Browne

Inspirational Quotes About Roses

The collection of quotes below use roses to teach life lessons and inspire hope and growth. If you’re looking for a pick-me-up and a bit of motivation to persevere, these inspirational quotes about roses are just what you need to hear.

61. “Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again.” – Anonymous

62. “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?… Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.” – Tupac Shakur

63. “Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett

64. “A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

65. “Just remember, during the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, that there’s a seed that with the sun’s love in the spring becomes a rose.” – Bette Midler

66. “For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder, still smiles on, and it is never cast down.” – Rumi

67. “You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, but the scent of the roses will hang round it still.” – Thomas Moore

68. “The rose is fairest when it is budding new, and hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.” – Sir Walter Scott

69. “A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.” – Ray Evans

70. “It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.” – George Eliot

71. “A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring.” – William Carlos Williams

72. “If the rose puzzled its mind over the question how it grew, it would not have been the miracle that it is.” – J. B. Yeats

Try adding one of these quotes to a card for a great addition to a gift or a rose floral arrangement. If you’re looking for a unique and personal gift idea for a rose lover (or to treat yourself), try using faux calligraphy to write a meaningful rose quote on paper and get it framed for them to make one-of-a-kind wall art. Have a fun rose-themed idea or favorite quote to add? Add it in the comment section below!