101 Best Sunflower Quotes + Poems

Welcome to our collection of 101 of the best sunflower poems and quotes.

With their golden colors and happy faces, sunflowers have a way of igniting happiness.  In fact, sunflowers have come to symbolize joy and are a favorite flower to many.

While we can’t experience real sunflower blossoms in all seasons, we can enjoy sunflower poems and quotes daily! 

When life gets tough, we can renew our spirits by looking to the sun and finding joy despite of our circumstances.  And this is exactly what sunflowers do-they literally follow the sun as it makes it’s way through the sky.  We hope these encouraging sunflower quotes will be a balm to your spirit, even on the darkest days.

We’ve gathered the best sunflower poems and quotes and put together this collection for you to enjoy.  Please feel free to share with friends and re post to social media!

Learn about sunflower meaning and symbolism here!  

Famous Sunflower Quotes

These sunflower quotes were first quipped by the famous.  Enjoy these popular sunflower quotes:

• “The sunflower is mine, in a way….” -Vincent Van Gogh
• “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.” – Helen Keller
• We’re all golden sunflowers inside.” -Allen Ginsberg
• “If roses tried to be sunflowers, they would lose their beauty; and if sunflowers tried to be roses, they would lose their strength.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

Our individuality is what makes us strong together.  Working together, sunflowers, roses, and many other flowers make a beautiful garden!

Get the best flower quotes here!

More Famous Sunflower Quotes

Enjoy a few more sunflower quotes by those who are well-known:

• “And here the sunflower of the spring burns bright in the morning’s beam.” – Ebenezer Elliott
• “The earth laughs in flowers” -Ralph Waldo Emerson 
• “The morning glories and the sunflowers turn naturally toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems.” – Richard Rohr
• “I am working with the enthusiasm of a man from Marseilles eating bouillabaisse, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because I am busy painting huge sunflowers.” -Vincent Van Gogh 
• “No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” — Samuel Johnson

Learn about adorable Teddy Bear sunflowers here.

Sunflower Quotes About Love + Friendship

Relationships put true meaning into life and flowers can be used to express our deepest feelings for others. Here are a few lovely sunflower quotes about friendship and romance:

• “Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. He attracts and follows.” – Jean Paul
• True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time.” – Marie Williams Johnstone
• “All they were—all they had ever been—was a pair of sunflowers who each believed the other was the sun.” Micah Nemerever

• “Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• “Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light.”
  – Eugenio Montale
• “Smile to the world and smile to the people you love, as a sunflower smile at the sun.” Remez Sasson
• “A sunflower teaches us so much about love.” -Samrah Ahmad
• “True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time.” -Unknown
• “Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.  -Marie Williams Johnstone 
• “Her smile put the sunflower to shame.” Jerry Spinelli

More Sunflower Friendship + Love Quotes

• “Does she realize she looks like a sunflower, ready to rain sunlight on all who look down upon her?”    -Simone Elkeles
• “Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that is the focus of the story we need – connection.” -Hannah Gadsb
• “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and a man cannot live without love.” -Max Muller
• “A sunflower for my sunflower. To brighten the dark October days you hate so much. Plant some more, and be safe in the knowledge a warm and bright summer awaits.”
  – Cecelia Ahern
• “In the morning the sunflower blossoms due to the sun’s rays. This morning I just wanted to remind you that my heart blossoms with love for you everyday I wake up and it is going to do that forever.” -Shelia Carey
• “Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.”

Inspirational Sunflower Quotes

These inspirational sunflower quotes will bring you encouragement on days the world feels overwhelming. We all go through struggles, even the sunflower as it completes it’s life cycle!

• “Sunflowers end up facing the sun, but they go through a lot of dirt to find their way there.” -J.R. Rim
• “In a crowd of roses, choose to be a sunflower. Thornless. Unwithering. Abundant in seeds.” – JaTawny M. Chatmon
• “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevensen
• “Despite knowing they won’t be here for long, they still choose to live their brightest lives: sunflowers.” Rupi Kaur
• “Who knows what may lie around the next corner? There may be a window somewhere ahead. It may look out on a field of sunflowers.” -Joe Hill
• “A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too.”  -MIranda Kerr
• “The road to freedom is bordered with sunflowers.” -Martin Firrell
• “With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?” -Oscar Wilde
• “Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace.”
• “Be like a flower and turn your face to the sun.”  -Kahlil Gibran

More Inspiring Quotes

There are so many inspiring sunflower quotes that have the power to lift us out of despair and point our faces to the sun:

• “If I were a flower … I would be a sunflower. To always follow the sun, turn my back to darkness, stand proud, tall, and straight even with my head full of seeds.” -Pam Stewart
• “A flower needs sunlight to grow and develop. Learning is like sunshine to us, helping us grow and develop.” -Catherine Pulsifer
• “Got a pocket full of sunshine and sunflowers.” -Unknown
• “The snow and the storm destroy the flower: but it’s seed they cannot kill. -Khalil Gibran
• “My work is the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird – equal seekers of sweetness.”  Mary Oliver
• “Then one by one they raised their faces to the sky. Like a field of sunflowers.” -Fiona Valpy
• “Tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun.” -The Beatles 
• “Her heart bloomed sunflowers so she would always face the light.” -Gemma Troy
• “Always look at the brighter side of life, just like the sunflower which looks upon the sun, not the dark clouds.” -H. Peter
• “Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace.” -Old French Proverb
• “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”  –Ukrainian proverb

Spiritual Quotes About Sunflowers

These spiritual sunflower quotes will point your eyes heavenward and renew your faith:

• “One of the remarkable characteristics of young wild sunflowers, in addition to growing in soil that is not hospitable, is how the young flower bud follows the sun across the sky. In doing so, it receives life-sustaining energy before bursting forth in its glorious yellow color. Like the young sunflower, when we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us. He truly is our light and life.” – Quentin L. Cook
• Someone was sitting in front of a sunflower, watching the sunflower, a cup of sun, and so I tried it too. It was wonderful; I felt the whole universe in the sunflower. That was my experience. Sunflower meditation. A wonderful confidence appeared. You can see the whole universe in a flower. “
  – Shunryu Suzuki
• “Pick up a sunflower and count the florets running into its centre, or count the spiral scales of a pine cone or a pineapple, running from its bottom up its sides to the top, and you will find an extraordinary truth: recurring numbers, ratios and proportions.”
  – Charles Jencks

Quotes Just About Sunflowers

These quotes just about sunflowers will inspire you to appreciate the beauty that lies in a simple, yet elegant, golden yellow flower:

• “The earth paints a portrait of the sun at dawn with sunflowers in bloom. Unhappy with the portrait, she erases it and paints it again and again. ” -Rabindranath Tagore
• “I plant sunflowers and get back daily joy.” -Nadine Locke
• “Big doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren’t better than violets.” -Edna Ferber
• “I believe there is something of the divine mystery in everything that exists. We can see it sparkle in a sunflower or a poppy.”  – Jostein Gaarder
• “A sunflower field is like a sky with a thousand suns.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
• “Make it like a sunflower” -Steve Jobs
• “Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and hollyhock.”  Henry Ward Beecher
• “Every flower has it’s own personality, and it’s own time to shine in the sun.” -JS
• “I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life than the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun.”
  – Helen Mirren
• ​“The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy.” -Thomas Bulfinch 
• “Never look directly at the sun. Instead, look at the sunflower.” Vera Nazarian
• I plant sunflowers and get back daily joy.” – Nadine Locke
• Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light.”– Eugenio Montale
• ​The head of all flower heads is one flower; the sunflower in the sky, that gives the others vivid color stemming from the inside.” – Curtis Tyrone Jones
• ​Big doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren’t better than violets.” – Edna Ferber
• ​”Let the golden rays of the sunflower illuminate your life.” J.S.

• ​”As for marigolds, poppies, hollyhocks, and valorous sunflowers, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them.”  Henry Ward Beech
• ​“Like a single sunbeam on a warm summer day, there is an exuberance and brilliance in a sunflower.” -Pam Richardson
• ​“Advice from a sunflower. Be bright, sunny, and positive. Know your roots. Spread seeds of happiness. Rise, shine, and hold your head up high. Keep on growing. Even on the darkest days, stand tall and find the sunlight.” – Unknown
• Roland R Kemler — ‘What a lonely place it would be to have a world without a wildflower!’
• “Oh, the golden orb which a sunflower… the only flower the size of a satellite dish.” -J.S
  

Funny Sunflower Quotes

These funny sunflower quotes will bring a smile to your face:

• ​“Bibliotropic,” Hugh said. “Like sunflowers are heliotropic, they naturally turn towards the sun. We naturally turn towards the bookshop.”
• “Later, gator.” “In an hour, sunflower.” -Alexandra bracken
• “When I went out to work today and looked a tall sunflower in the face, it smiled at me with all of its seeds.” Vladimir Nabokov
• “Oh, the golden orb which a sunflower… the only flower the size of a satellite dish.” -J.S.
• “Which makes it ironic my favorite flower isn’t even indigenous to the British Isles, let alone Yorkshire. I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life than the sunflower.”
  – Tim Firth

Sunflower Poems

• “Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the rose, with sweets in every fold.” – Oliver Wendell Holme

• “And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood.”-William Cullen Bryant.

• “On earth, thy gorgeous bloom
  Bears record of thy tomb,
  And to transcendent light
  Thy soul takes flight
  Till thou art one,
  O sunflower, with the sun!” – Sara Jewett

• “Where life dissolves like essence; bring me the sunflower crazy with light.” -*Eugenio Montale Read more of Eugenio’s intriguing poem here.

• “But one, the lofty follower of the Sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves. Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns, Points her enamored bosom to his ray.” -James Thomson

• “Light-enchanted sunflower, thou. Who gazest ever true and tender. On the sun’s revolving splendor.” Pedro Calderon de la Barca

• “A sunflower poem: The lofty follower of the sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, Drooping all night; and when he warm returns. Points her enamored bosom to his ray.” -James Thomson

• “Despite knowing
  they won’t be here for long
  they still choose to live
  their brightest lives. ” Rupi Kaur  

• “I point to the field of yellow outside
  sunflowers worship the sun i tell him
  only when it arrives do they rise
  when the sun leaves
  they bow their heads in mourning
  that is what the sun does to those flowers
  it’s what you do to me.” – Rupi Kaur, the sun and her flowers   

• “And here the sunflower of the spring burns bright in the morning’s beam.”
  – Ebenezer Elliott

• “Sun-flowers, stop growing!
    If you touch the sky where those clouds are passing
                                 Like tufts of dandelion gone to seed,
                                 The sky will put you out!
                                 You know it is blue like the sea . . .
                                 Maybe it is wet, too!
                                 Your gold faces will be gone forever
                                 If you brush against that blue
                                 Ever so softly! ”                      -Hilda Conkling

• “Up from the wayside damp and cold, Cut of the early Kansas mold,Blossomed the sunflowers, green and gold.” -Lottie Brown Allen

•  “Unloved the sunflower, shining fair,
   Ray round with flowers her disk of seed. ”   – Tennyson

• “Miles and miles of golden green
  Where the sunflowers blow
  In a solid glow.” – Robert Browning

• “Oh sunflower! The queen of all flowers,
  No other with you can compare,
  The roadside and fields are made golden
  Because of your bright presence there.
   Above all the weeds that surround you
  You raise to the sun your bright head,
  Embroidering beautiful landscapes
  Your absence would leave brown and dead.” -Ed Blair            

Sunflower Poem By William Blake

“Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the Sun:

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the travellers journey is done. “

See the full poem by William Blake here

Quotes By Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is a famous painter who created numerous famous sunflower paintings. Enjoy these sunflower quotes by Van Gogh:

• “I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.” – Vincent van Gogh 
• “I am painting with the same enthusiasm as a Marseillaise eats bouillabaisse … I am painting big sunflowers.” -Van Gogh
• “How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.” Van Gogh
• “The sunflower is mine, in a way.” -Van Gogh
• “Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” -Van Gogh

Short Sunflower Captions For Instagram

Are you looking for sunflower quotes that are short + sweet? Here are some short sunflower quotes that you can use for your instagram captions:

• Sunflowers: tiny ray of sunshine in your hands
• Just give me sunflowers
• Sweet sunflowers + sunshine, thou are mine
• For a little cheer add a sunflower
• The sunflower is smiling
• Reaching to the sun, petals of vibrant yellow, sunflower I am
• ​Let the golden rays of the sunflower illuminate your life. J.S.
• Be like the sunflower: plant your roots deep and reach for the sky.
• ​Live to make people smile, sunflower.
• Be like the sunflower: know your roots and reach for the sky.
• Bringing joy + light, the sunflower arrives
• A sunflower is the perfect blend of summer + fall
• Sun+Flower=Bliss
• Sunflowers: just a ray of sun lighting up the garden
• ​Sunflowers bring happiness to bees, butterflies, and me! -unknown
• Sunflowers are always a good idea.
• A sunflower, full of grace and beauty, inspires joy

Learn about wild sunflowers here.

Final Thoughts

The vibrant yellow glow and cheerful face of the sunflower has inspired humanity since the dawn of time.   From the mammoth sunflower to the tiniest dwarf flower, sunflowers continue to bring joy to us today.   

We hope these sunflower quotes and poems put a smile on your face and a bounce in your step.

If you are looking for more inspiration be sure to check out post on the best flower quotes here.

Learn how to plant dwarf sunflower seeds here.

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