Sprout Quotes

1. "In my mind, I could sense their roots under the soil, creeping in helical tangles of ever-increasing complexity outward and in all directions—out beyond the perimeter of the Helsingør Wood, out below Yami's Under City, out along the banks of the river, out to the nearest coast and thereupon out into the sea; the roots crept down further along the continental shelf, downward into the abysses, downward into the ocean floor, burrowing under the corals and under trenches, and then back up again to sprout in the darkened forest on a foreign continent: all the trees of the world now had conjoined roots, for they were now of one conjoined consciousness!"
Author: Ashim Shanker

2. "Beat sprouts," I croaked, ashamed I'd reached a point in my life where I had to make decisions like choosing between bean sprouts or potato chips (and then going with fucking bean sprouts!)."
Author: Brando Skyhorse

3. "Some ideas are not born of logic and good sense. They are made of clouds and cobwebs. They sprout from nowhere and feed on excitement, sprinkled with adventure juice and the sweet flavor of the forbidden. The psyche moves from the realms of the ordinary and takes a delicate step towards the unknown. We know we shouldn't and that is exactly why we do."
Author: Brigid Lowry

4. "... everything seemed to him a uniform shade of gray- even the people! He had been unable to believe it could rain so much in one place, and so unceasingly. The damp had seemed to come up from the floors and into his bones, so that he'd thought he would eventually sprout mold, in the manner of a tree. "You do get used to it," he said "Even if sometimes you feel as if you out to be able to be wrung out like a washrag." p 311"
Author: Cassandra Clare

5. "Oh, September! It is so soon for you to lose your friends to good work and strange loves and high ambitions. The sadness of that is too grown-up for you. Like whiskey and voting, it is a dangerous and heady business, as heavy as years. If I could keep your little tribe together forever, I would. I do so want to be generous. But some stories sprout bright vines that tendril off beyond our sight, carrying the folk we love best with them, and if I knew how to accept that with grace, I would share the secret."
Author: Catherynne M. Valente

6. "Gray vines coiled leftward in this northern hemisphere, what winds them shapes the dogwhelk's shell. Weeds sprouted from cinder and brick."
Author: Cormac McCarthy

7. "A scattering of pinpoint lights shows up in the blackness ahead. A town or village straddling the highway. The indicator on the speedometer begins to lose ground. The man glances in his mirror at the girl, a little anxiously as if this oncoming town were some kind of test to be met.An illuminated road sign flashes by: CAUTION! MAIN STREET AHEAD - SLOW UP The man nods grimly, as if agreeing with that first word. But not in the way it is meant.The lights grow bigger, spread out on either side. Street lights peer out here and there among the trees. The highway suddenly sprouts a plank sidewalk on each side of it. Dark store-windows glide by.With an instinctive gesture, the man dims his lights from blinding platinum to just a pale wash. A lunch-room window drifts by. ("Jane Brown's Body")"
Author: Cornell Woolrich

8. "[O]ver the years I travelled to another universe. However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life. They have green skin, with two heads that sprout antennae. They can be pleasant, they can be annoying--in the supermarket, these old ladies won't get out of my way--but most important they are permanently other. When we turn eighty, we understand that we are extraterrestrial. If we forget for a moment that we are old, we are reminded when we try to stand up, or when we encounter someone young, who appears to observe green skin, extra heads, and protuberances."
Author: Donald Hall

9. "When god lets my body beFrom each brave eye shall sprout a treefruit that dangles therefromthe purpled world will dance uponBetween my lips which did singa rose shall beget the springthat maidens whom passion wasteswill lay between their little breastsMy strong fingers beneath the snowInto strenuous birds shall gomy love walking in the grasstheir wings will touch with her faceand all the while shall my heart beWith the bulge and nuzzle of the sea"
Author: E.E. Cummings

10. "Someone asked me what home was and all I could think of were the stars on the tip of your tongue, the flowers sprouting from your mouth, the roots entwined in the gaps between your fingers, the ocean echoing inside of your ribcage."
Author: E.E. Cummings

11. "They Lied"They lied, my friend. They injected their despair beneath your skin like a parasitic insect laying eggs in the body of another species.Nothing they said is true,everything about you is honorable. Every porethat opens and closes—a multitudealong the expanse of your body, thefollicles from which hair sproutsemerging again and again like spiders' flossspun from a limitless source.You wait, huddled. Or carry yourself fromplace to place like a burden. As ifyou would stash yourself, if you could,in a bus station locker, or somewhere smaller.You don't really hope, butyou can't give it up completely.Some stubborn nuggetis lodged like a bullet in bone.Though each breath stings with the coldsuck of it, you can know the truth.Every cell of your body vibrates with its own intelligence.Every atom is pure."
Author: Ellen Bass

12. "Beware of books. They are more than innocent assemblages of paper and ink and string and glue. If they are any good, they have the spirit of the author within. Authors are rogues and ruffians and easy lays. They are gluttons for sweets and savories. They devour life and always want more. They have sap, spirit, sex. Books are panderers. The Jews are not wrong to worship books. A real book has pheromones and sprouts grass through its cover."
Author: Erica Jong

13. "The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves."
Author: Erin Morgenstern

14. "Much on earth is concealed from us, but in place of it we have been granted a secret, mysterious sense of our living bond with the other world, with the higher heavenly world, and the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here but in other worlds. That is why philosophers say it is impossible on earth to conceive the essence of things. God took seeds from other worlds and sowed them on this earth, and raised up his garden; and everything that could sprout sprouted, but it lives and grows only through its sense of being in touch with other mysterious worlds; if this sense is weakened or destroyed in you, that which has grown up in you dies. Then you become indifferent to life, and even come to hate it."
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

15. "Hans: [Y]ou can't conceive what a great fellow I'm going to be. The seed of immortality has sprouted within me.Deronda: Only a fungoid growth, I daresay - a crowing disease in the lungs."
Author: George Eliot

16. "Then, abrupt and decisive, the Emerald City rose before them. A city of insistence, of blanket declaration. It made no sense, clotting up the horizon, sprouting like a mirage on the characterless plains of central Oz. Glinda hated it from the moment she saw it. Brash upstart of a city."
Author: Gregory Maguire

17. "Wicked eyes are not a good prospect for seminary boys. They want a gentle, soft sort of wife, not a wife who looks as though she may sprout wings and carry off the young children of the village. ~Maria "Smythe"
Author: Gwenn Wright

18. "My swimming cap was really sprouting leaks these days. The thing is, you could patch over the holes, but it would never be the same. Like my love life."
Author: Helen Salter

19. "People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn't know were there, even the ones they wouldn't have thought to call beautiful themselves."
Author: Hilary T. Smith

20. "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare . . . what did Professor Sprout say? — it likes the dark and the damp —""So light a fire!" Harry choked."Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermoine cried, wringing her hands."HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
Author: J.K. Rowling

21. "Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in."
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

22. "Gideon, you old dog, you have taken a mate," the Prince accused with humor sparkling from those fathomless eyes. "And I believe she finds me quite attractive."Gideon heard Legna gasp in shock and tried to repress a feral smile as he became aware of the burning blush she sprouted."I would not cross that particular line even as a joke, Damien," Gideon warned him smoothly."My apologies. I could not resist." Damien looked steadily into Gideon's eyes for a moment. "She must be young, not to realize I would be able to read her presence within your mind.""She is young, but I would not underestimate her if I were you."
Author: Jacquelyn Frank

23. "In contrast [to trees and fish], oil, metals, and coal are not renewable; they don't reproduce, sprout, or have sex to produce baby oil droplets or coal nuggets."
Author: Jared Diamond

24. "I'll see the sprouts in the morning when you wake up from sleep, and with glee look at the way the bright sun, I'll see it...And then I have no more desire for others the whole day. Everything, everything is covered with these expectations."
Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

25. "A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me will full hands; How could I answer the child?......I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. There was the hope Dr. Holden had talked about-the grass was a metaphor for his hope. But that"s not all. He continues, Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Like grass is a metaphor for God's greatness or something.... And then soon after is itself a child.... And then soon after that, Or, I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, And it means, Sprouting alike in broadzones and narrow zones. Growing among black folk as among white."
Author: John Green

26. "The imagination doesn't crop annually like a reliable fruit tree. The writer has to gather whatever's there: sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes nothing at all. And in the years of glut there is always a slatted wooden tray in some cool, dark attic, which the writer nervously visits from time to time; and yes, oh dear, while he's been hard at work downstairs, up in the attic there are puckering skins, warning spots, a sudden brown collapse and the sprouting of snowflakes. What can he do about it?"
Author: Julian Barnes

27. "Then his gaze shifted to the wild bush sprouting from her head. "Wow. Did I do that to your hair?" He looked oddly pleased at the thought.Rylann made a mental note to throw a flat iron in her purse the next time she had sex in the shower with a billionaire ex-con. Not that there wasgoing to be a next time. "Not all of us are lucky enough to have freakishly perfect, shampoo-commercial hair. This is what happens when I get wet."His expression turned wicked. "I know exactly what happens when you get wet, counselor."Yep, she'd walked right into that one."
Author: Julie James

28. "What I suffer from this continuous idleness I am quite unable to describe. This wonderful spring with its secret life and movement troubles me unspeakably. These eternal blue skies, lasting for weeks, this continuous sprouting and budding in nature, these coaxing breeze impregnated with spring sunlight and fragrance of flowers... makes me frantic. Everywhere this bewildering urge for life, fruitfulness, creation....and only I, although like the humblest grass of the fields one of God's creatures, and may not take part in this festival of resurration, at any rate not except as a spectator with grief and envy -- Hugo Wolf."
Author: Kay Redfield Jamison

29. "And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, Mariam uprooted them. She uprooted them and ditched them before they took hold."
Author: Khaled Hosseini

30. "Showing up underdressed is as smart as standing in the marketplace and shouting you've become an agent for the crown.""I'd hang myself first. I hate being a female.""Well until you sprout a beard and cock there you are."
Author: Lynn Viehl

31. "Envoiwe had no voicewe had no namewe had no choicewe had one faceone face the samewe took the blameit was no fairbut now w're herewe're all here toothe same as youand now we followyou, we find younow, we callto you to youtoo wit too wootoo wit too wootoo woo(The Maids sprout feathers, and fly away as owls.)"
Author: Margaret Atwood

32. "The young might have been restless around any primal fire where an elder was saying, Know this. Certainly they would have been restless. Their bodies were consumed with the business of lengthening limbs, sprouting hair, fitting themselves for procreation."
Author: Marilynne Robinson

33. "After 1656 the Dutch, who had gained control over the Moluccas, chose the islands that could be most easily defended. They then burned all the nutmeg trees on the other islands to make sure no one else could profit from the trees. Anyone caught trying to smuggle nutmeg out of the Moluccas was put to death. The Dutch also dipped all their nutmegs in lime (a caustic substance) to stop the seed from sprouting and to prevent people from planting their own trees. Pigeons, however, defied these Dutch precautions. Birds could eat nutmeg fruits, fly to another island and leave the seeds behind in their droppings."
Author: Meredith Sayles Hughes

34. "Among the weeds choking out growth and good government are the hundreds of boards, commissions, and advisory committees that have sprouted over the years. They devour time, money, and energy far beyond any real contribution they make."
Author: Mitch Daniels

35. "This prayer in praise of Lord Vishnu be,His incarnations graced earth constantly. ?????????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ?????????? ?????????? ???????? ??????????????????????? ??????? ?????????????????? ????? ?????? ??????? ???????????????I bow to Vishnu, Master of Universe unquestionably,Who rests on great serpent bed, peaceful perpetually,From His navel sprouts Lotus of Creative Power surely,He the Supreme Lord of cosmos undeniably does be.- 146 - He supports the entire universe and all-pervading be,He dark as clouds with beautiful Lakshmi form glowingly,He the lotus-eyed, whom yogis see by meditation only,He destroyer of `Samsar' fear – the Lord of all `loks' be.- 147 -"
Author: Munindra Misra

36. "O love is to battle, if two kiss the world changes, desires take flesh thoughts take flesh, wings sprout on the backs of the slave, the world is real and tangible, wine is wine, bread regains its savor, water is water, to love is to battle, to open doors, to cease to be a ghost with a number forever in chains, forever condemned by a faceless master; the world changes if two look at each other and seePiedra de Sol (The Sun Stone), translated by Eliot Weinberger"
Author: Octavio Paz

37. "And, as I mused, the years fell away, hair sprouted on the vast steppes of my head, where never hair has been almost within the memory of man."
Author: P.G. Wodehouse

38. "A dream when sown has the ability to sprout within itself; it must be sown."
Author: Paul Bamikole

39. "After voluntary exertions on the part of our people to which the history of the world furnishes no parallel, is the old root of bitterness still to remain in the ground, to sprout and bear fruit in the future as it has borne fruit in the past?"
Author: Robert Dale Owen

40. "Gods have a way of sprouting from vacant lots."
Author: Robert Dawson

41. "But usually not. Usually she thinks of the path to his house, whether deer had eaten the tops of the fiddleheads, why they don't eat the peppermint saprophytes sprouting along the creek; or she visualizes the approach to the cabin, its large windows, the fuchsias in front of it where Anna's hummingbirds always hover with dirty green plumage and jeweled throats. Sometimes she thinks about her dream, the one in which her mother wakes up with no hands. The cabin smells of oil paint, but also of pine. The painter's touch is sexual and not sexual, as she herself is....When the memory of that time came to her, it was touched by strangeness because it formed no pattern with the other events in her life. It lay in her memory like one piece of broken tile, salmon-coloured or the deep green of wet leaves, beautiful in itself but unusable in the design she was making"
Author: Robert Hass

42. "- It's a small matter, but one which I think shouldn't be overlooked. - Oh Yes? And that is? - That is the simple matter that time travel is an impossibility, you craven buffoon! - Not with the latest miracle of modern horticulture...Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce you to THE TIME SPROUT !'Pleased to be here' said the vegetable in question."
Author: Robert Rankin

43. "They drove past buses that dripped people the way a sponge drips water, and arrived at a thick forest of human beings, a crowd of people sprouting in all directions like leaves on jungle trees."
Author: Salman Rushdie

44. "Agatha surveys the garden, its rows of crinkled spring cabbages and beanstalks entwining bowers of hawthorn and hazel. The rosemary is dotted with pale blue stars of blossom and chives nod heads of tousled purple. New sage leaves sprout silver green among the brittle, frost-browned remains of last year's growth. Lily of the valley, she thinks, that will be out in the cloister garden at Saint Justina's by now."
Author: Sarah Bower

45. "I do half the cooking, and by 'half' I mean three quarters," Dad pointed out. "And if you're going to turn up your nose at all my carnivorous delights, ingrate child, you can sit under the table and gnaw sadly on a raw Brussels sprout at mealtimes."
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

46. "Ol' man Simon, planted a diamond. Grew hisself a garden the likes of none. Sprouts all growin' comin' up glowin' Fruit of jewels all shinin' in the sun. Colors of the rainbow. See the sun and the rain grow sapphires and rubies on ivory vines, Grapes of jade, just ripenin' in the shade, just ready for the squeezin' into green jade wine. Pure gold corn there, Blowin' in the warm air. Ol' crow nibblin' on the amnythyst seeds. In between the diamonds, Ol' man Simon crawls about pullin' out platinum weeds. Pink pearl berries, all you can carry, put 'em in a bushel and haul 'em into town. Up in the tree there's opal nuts and gold pears- Hurry quick, grab a stick and shake some down. Take a silver tater, emerald tomater, fresh plump coral melons. Hangin' in reach. Ol' man Simon, diggin' in his diamonds, stops and rests and dreams about one... real... peach."
Author: Shel Silverstein

47. "Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,I had not thought death had undone so many.Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stock of nine.There I saw one I knew, and stopped him crying: 'Stetson!You, who were with me in the ships at Mylae!That corpse you planted last year in your garden,Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frere!"
Author: T.S. Eliot

48. "You cannot count on the physical proximity of someone you love, all the time. A seed that sprouts at the foot of its parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted. Rama will be in my care, and he will be quite well. But ultimately, he will leave me too. Every human being, when the time comes, has to depart to seek his fulfillment in his own way."
Author: Vālmīki

49. "And the Flatline aligned the nose of Kuang's sting with the center of the dark below. And dove. Case's sensory input warped with their velocity. His mouth filled with an aching taste of blue. His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sounds of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine spines. The spines split, bisected, split again, exponential growth under the dome of the Tessier-Ashpool ice."
Author: William Gibson

50. "Praise everybody, I say to such: never be squeamish, but speak out your compliment both point-blank in a man's face, and behind his back, when you know there is a reasonable chance of his hearing it again. Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and popped it in; so deal with your compliments through life. An acorn costs nothing; but it may sprout into a prodigious bit of timber."
Author: William Makepeace Thackeray

Sprout Quotes Pictures