QuoteProject
Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Oliver Goldsmith
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Aromatic plants only release their fragrance when they are damaged or crushed, symbolizing how beauty often emerges from struggle.

This quote suggests that the true value and beauty of certain things are revealed only under pressure or adversity. Just as aromatic plants need to be crushed to release their sweet scent, people may unveil their true potential and resilience in challenging situations, often producing their most beautiful qualities during times of hardship.

Themes

Aromatic PlantsAdversityBeautyFragranceResilience

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about overcoming challenges, one could use this quote to illustrate how difficulties can lead to personal growth.

More from Oliver Goldsmith

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
A mind too vigorous and active, serves only to consume the body to which it is joined.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Whatever the skill of any country may be in the sciences, it is from its excellence in polite learning alone that it must expect a character from posterity.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Life at the greatest and best is but a froward child, that must be humored and coaxed a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.
Oliver GoldsmithRead
Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,_x000D_ _x000D_ Adorns and cheers our way;_x000D_ _x000D_ And still, as darker grows the night,_x000D_ _x000D_ Emits a brighter ray.
Oliver GoldsmithRead

Similar quotes

I go five steps in the garden, and I immediately lose track of time... it is a kind of joy in being alive in being in the world. I always found that in the garden. That is what it means to me.
W. S. MerwinRead
It's not a choice between our environment and our economy; it's a choice between prosperity and decline.
Barack ObamaRead
I think, on a personal level, everybody, when you go through the checkout line after you get your groceries and they say, 'Paper or plastic?' We should be saying, 'Neither one.' We should have our own cloth bags.
Woody HarrelsonRead
No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd, No arborett with painted blossoms drest And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd To bud out faire, and throwe her sweete smels al arownd.
Edmund SpenserRead
Grass is the forgiveness of nature - her constant benediction. Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal...Its tenacious fibers hold the earth in place and prevent its soluble components from washing to the wasting sea.
John James IngallsRead
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
Charles LindberghRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.