--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I hold no preference among flowers, so…" description: "\"I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.\" — Edward Abbey" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png" --- # I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are… ![“I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.” quote by Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png) > “I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.” [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Wild, free flowers symbolize natural spontaneity and beauty, valuing untamed over cultivated. **In simple terms:** Appreciate natural spontaneity. Key Takeaway Seek freedom in nature. Themes nature freedom spontaneity Mood peaceful reverent Type poetic observational When to use this quote - gardening - outdoor recreation - creative inspiration Key Concepts wildness beauty environmentalism Questions to Reflect On - How can you incorporate wildness into daily life? - What does spontaneity mean to you? A Different Perspective Cultivation can also be beautiful. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Blossoming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blossoming/) [Flower](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flower/) [Flower blossom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flower-blossom/) [Gardening](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gardening/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Plant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plant/) [Preference](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/preference/) [Spontaneous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spontaneous/) [Wildflowers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wildflowers/) ## Related quotes > [Where flowers bloom so does hope.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lady-bird-johnson/where-flowers-bloom-so-does-hope/) [Lady Bird Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lady-bird-johnson/) > ['Tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-wordsworth/tis-my-faith-that-every-flower-enjoys-the-air-it-breathes/) [William Wordsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-wordsworth/) > [All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seed of today.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/croft-m-pentz/all-the-flowers-of-all-the-tomorrows-are-in-the-seed-of-today/) [Croft M. Pentz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/croft-m-pentz/) > [I think it's important to be flexible and free, and you can't be free and spontaneous if you don't know what you're doing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/krysten-ritter/i-think-it-s-important-to-be-flexible-and-free-and-you-can-t-be-free/) [Krysten Ritter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/krysten-ritter/) > [There is value in being free and spontaneous but the greatest power comes from seeing and using what results from that freedom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carole-katchen/there-is-value-in-being-free-and-spontaneous-but-the-greatest-power/) [Carole Katchen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carole-katchen/) > [A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-schweitzer/a-man-is-ethical-only-when-life-as-such-is-sacred-to-him/) [Albert Schweitzer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-schweitzer/) > [I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-steichen/i-was-coming-to-realize-that-the-real-magician-was-light-itself/) [Edward Steichen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-steichen/) > [The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-lloyd-wright/the-physician-can-bury-his-mistakes-but-the-architect-can-only-advise/) [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-lloyd-wright/) > [True friendship is a plant of slow growth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-washington/true-friendship-is-a-plant-of-slow-growth/) [George Washington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-washington/) > [The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfilment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ruskin/the-actual-flower-is-the-plant-s-highest-fulfilment-and-are-not-here/) [John Ruskin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ruskin/) > [Silently a flower blooms, In silence it falls away; Yet here now, at this moment, at this place, The world of the flower, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zenkei-shibayama/silently-a-flower-blooms-in-silence-it-falls-away-yet-here-now-at/) Zenkei Shibayama > [When you feel expansion of your consciousness, that is the most ecstatic experience possible, because suddenly you are the whole universe. Stars are within…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/when-you-feel-expansion-of-your-consciousness-that-is-the-most/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [“The elegant and beautiful Lotus flower must toil through the mud and mire of murky swamps and shadowy waters of darkness before it can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-versey/the-elegant-and-beautiful-lotus-flower-must-toil-through-the-mud-and/) [Jason Versey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-versey/) > [A too closely watched flower/blossoms the wrong color./Excess attention to the jonquil/turns it gentian. Flowers/need it tranquil to get/their hues right. Some/only open at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kay-ryan/a-too-closely-watched-flower-blossoms-the-wrong-color-excess/) [Kay Ryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kay-ryan/) > [My days – the blossom of my youth and the flower of my manhood – have been darkened by the dreariness of servitude. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-o-connell/my-days-the-blossom-of-my-youth-and-the-flower-of-my-manhood-have/) [Daniel O'Connell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-o-connell/) ## More by Edward Abbey > [A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/a-man-could-be-a-lover-and-defender-of-the-wilderness-without-ever-in/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Apuleius married a rich widow, then wrote \_The Golden Ass\_.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/apuleius-married-a-rich-widow-then-wrote-the-golden-ass/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Except for the scale of the operation, there was nothing unusual about Hitler's massacre of the Jews. Genocide's an old tradition, as human as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/except-for-the-scale-of-the-operation-there-was-nothing-unusual-about/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [By the age of eighteen, a human has acquired enough joy and heartache to provide the food of reflection for a century.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/by-the-age-of-eighteen-a-human-has-acquired-enough-joy-and-heartache/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [“Our institutions are too big; they represent not the best but the worst characteristics of human beings. By submitting to huge hierarchies of power,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/our-institutions-are-too-big-they-represent-not-the-best-but-the/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [No man-made structure in all of American history has been hated so much, by so many, for so long, with such good reason, as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/no-man-made-structure-in-all-of-american-history-has-been-hated-so/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/where-all-pretend-to-be-thinking-alike-it-s-likely-that-no-one-is/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Nobody has so many friends that he can afford to lose one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/nobody-has-so-many-friends-that-he-can-afford-to-lose-one/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [“But why, the questioner insists, why do people like you pretend to love uninhabited country so much? Why this cult of wilderness? Why the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/but-why-the-questioner-insists-why-do-people-like-you-pretend-to-love/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Civilization is a youth with a molotov cocktail in his hand. Culture is the Soviet tank or L.A. cop that guns him down.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/civilization-is-a-youth-with-a-molotov-cocktail-in-his-hand-culture/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self- justifying -- a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/all-revolutions-have-failed-perhaps-but-rebellion-for-good-cause-is/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [“Me, I'm living under a sword too, as Jack may have told you. An old wino's disease, which could lay me in the grave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/me-i-m-living-under-a-sword-too-as-jack-may-have-told-you-an-old-wino/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [“Look here, I want to say, for godsake folks get out of them there machines, take off those fucking sunglasses and unpeel both eyeballs,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/look-here-i-want-to-say-for-godsake-folks-get-out-of-them-there/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [Reason has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/reason-has-seldom-failed-us-because-it-has-seldom-been-tried/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) > [“What is the essence of the art of writing? Part One: Have something to say. Part Two: Say it well.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/what-is-the-essence-of-the-art-of-writing-part-one-have-something-to/) [Edward Abbey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) [Explore all 807 Edward Abbey quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/) ## More Blossoming quotes > [The greatest mystery in life is not life itself, but death. Death is the culmination of life, the ultimate blossoming of life. In death…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/the-greatest-mystery-in-life-is-not-life-itself-but-death-death-is/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [“In our springtime there is no better, there is no worse. Blossoming branches burgeon as the must. Some are long, some are short.' Stay…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cyril-pedrosa/in-our-springtime-there-is-no-better-there-is-no-worse-blossoming/) Cyril Pedrosa > [The leafy blossoming present time springs from the whole past, remembered and unrememberable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-carlyle/the-leafy-blossoming-present-time-springs-from-the-whole-past/) [Thomas Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-carlyle/) > [I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves. It is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruce-lee/i-hope-martial-artists-are-more-interested-in-the-root-of-martial/) [Bruce Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruce-lee/) > [I am a beautiful flower that is blossoming more and more each day. I delight in my world, and my world delights in me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louise-hay/i-am-a-beautiful-flower-that-is-blossoming-more-and-more-each-day-i/) [Louise Hay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louise-hay/) > [Take the very hardest thing in your life - the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lilias-trotter/take-the-very-hardest-thing-in-your-life-the-place-of-difficulty/) [Lilias Trotter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lilias-trotter/) > [Creativity is our true nature; blocks are an unnatural thwarting of a process at once as normal and as miraculous as the blossoming of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julia-cameron/creativity-is-our-true-nature-blocks-are-an-unnatural-thwarting-of-a/) [Julia Cameron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julia-cameron/) > [Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/who-are-you-reader-reading-my-poems-an-hundred-years-hence-i-cannot/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [We are all naturally seekers of wonders. We travel far to see the majesty of old ruins, the venerable forms of the hoary mountains,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-pike/we-are-all-naturally-seekers-of-wonders-we-travel-far-to-see-the/) [Albert Pike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-pike/) > [We're starting to feel We stayed together out of fear Of dying alone I've been slipping through the years my old clothes don't fit…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/she-s-gone/we-re-starting-to-feel-we-stayed-together-out-of-fear-of-dying-alone/) she's\_gone > [Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/labor-is-blossoming-or-dancing-where-the-body-is-not-bruised-to/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [You walk until you come to the ocean. You don't walk or run in the ocean - you float and swim. Like this once…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sri-sri-ravi-shankar/you-walk-until-you-come-to-the-ocean-you-don-t-walk-or-run-in-the/) [Sri Sri Ravi Shankar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sri-sri-ravi-shankar/) > [A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art: that they shall excite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-certain-strangeness-something-of-the-blossoming-of-the-aloe-is/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A boyfriend has so much to do with a woman blossoming.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-coolidge/a-boyfriend-has-so-much-to-do-with-a-woman-blossoming/) [Jennifer Coolidge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-coolidge/) > [Ungrateful people breed negativity. No one gets any pleasure from giving to an ungrateful person. When you show appreciation, the object of your attention…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-mccabe/ungrateful-people-breed-negativity-no-one-gets-any-pleasure-from/) Paul McCabe [Browse all 134 Blossoming quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blossoming/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Edward Abbey" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-long-as-they-are-wild-free/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Blossoming" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-long-as-they-are-wild-free/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb7/edward-abbey-254_blossoming_i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-lo_830763.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.” — Edward Abbey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Edward Abbey", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-abbey/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "I hold no preference among flowers,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-long-as-they-are-wild-free/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-abbey/i-hold-no-preference-among-flowers-so-long-as-they-are-wild-free/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```