100 Sunflower Quotes That Will Brighten Up Your Day

Every flower is beautiful in its own way. Big or small, richly perfumed or with no particular smell, flowers are one of nature’s many marvels that bring joy to our souls. You may have a favorite flower, of course, but we are dedicating this article to sunflower quotes.

Sunflowers are easy to recognize. They have large brown centers and bright yellow petals all around. Many centuries ago, people encouraged the production and breeding of these flowers in order to create sunflower oil, that we still use for cooking.

Aside for its commercial use, the sunflower is a beauty that can grow over six feet tall. If you’ve ever seen a sunflower field, you already know how gorgeous the view is. If not, imagine hundreds of these large flowers constantly turning their heads towards the sun -- definitely something that catches the eye!

Many authors and philosophers have found inspiration in the way sunflowers follow the sun no matter what. Below, you’ll find some of the best sunflower quotes that will make you appreciate this flower even more.

Sunflower Quotes to Brighten Your Day

Sunflowers bloom during summer, so when we think about them, we automatically think about summer. We’ve handpicked the following sunflower quotes to celebrate their beauty, and to remind you to always turn your face to the sun.

"You may know that the peony is Jeannin’s, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is mine in a way."

-- Vincent Van Gogh

"Make it like a sunflower."

-- Steve Jobs

"Let the sunflowers of thy soul bloom in the sunshine." - Lailah Gifty Akita

"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 flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how great, can be overcome."

-- Matshona Dhliwayo

"Always hold your head high like a sunflower that stretches toward the light."

-- Malene Rossau

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you." - Maori proverb

"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

"You’ll emerge so bright that the haters will be blinded. And darling, you’ll be the sun then, bright and beautiful, but they won’t be your sunflowers."

-- Minahil

"Wherever the sun goes, the sunflower will follow. Through all of the pain. And all of the sorrow."

-- Londrelle

"I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower.. A satellite dish for sunshine. 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."

-- Helen Mirren

"Come with me into the field of sunflowers is a better line than anything you will find here, and the sunflowers themselves far more wonderful than any words about them."

-- Mary Oliver

"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

"There are not too many fables about man’s misuse of sunflower seeds." - Richard Brautigan

"His eyes were the color of gold, of sunflowers and butterscotch and lemons hanging heavy on their boughs."

-- Jest Marissa Meyer

"Ah! sunflower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the sun, Seeking after that sweet golden clime, Where the traveler's journey is done; Where the youth pined away with desire, And the pale virgin shrouded in snow, Arise from their graves and aspire; Where my sunflower wishes to go."

-- William Blake

"Does she realize she looks like a sunflower, ready to rain sunlight on all who look down upon her?"

-- Simone Elkeles

Light-enchanted sunflower, thou/ Who gazest ever true and tender/ On the sun's revolving splendour. 

-- Pedro Calderón de la Barca

"The gaudy leonine sunflower hangs black and barren on its stalk and down the windy garden walk the dead leaves scatter – hour by hour."

-- Oscar Wilde

"Eagle of flowers! I see thee stand, And on the sun’s noon-glory gaze; With eye like his, thy lids expand, And fringe their disk with golden rays: Though fix’d on earth, in darkness rooted there, Light is thy element, thy dwelling air, Thy prospect heaven."

-- James Montgomery

"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

"Like a single sunbeam on a warm summer day, there is an exuberance and brilliance in a sunflower." - Unknown

"Bring me then the plant that points to those bright Lucidites swirling up from the earth, And life itself exhaling that central breath! Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light." 

-- Eugenio Montale

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 Beecher 

"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 enamor’d bosom to his ray."

-- James Thomson

"And here the sunflower of the spring burns bright in the morning’s beam."

-- Ebenezer Elliott

"A long time ago in a kingdom by the sea there lived a princess as tall and bright as a sunflower."

-- Jeanne Desy

"So, I’m off to the market to buy a few sunflowers to place in a vase on my kitchen table. Have a beautiful day!"

-- Olivia Dunn

Short Sunflower Quotes for the Perfect Caption

These short sunflower quotes can instantly lift your spirit up. You can use them as captions for your social media posts. Read through them and then share some beautiful emotions with your online friends.

"A sunflower field is like a sky with a thousand suns."

-- Corina Abulahm-Negura

"Restless sunflower; cease to move."

-- Pedro Calderón de la Barca

"Sunflowers Never Lie."

-- Emily Byrnes

"Standing among the sunflowers, I craved divinity."

-- Michael Paterniti

"Sunflowers and seashells and logarithmic spirals …"

-- Keri Hulme

"She is a sunflower! She brings hope to people."

-- Avijeet Das

"The flower that follows the sun does so even in cloudy days."

-- Robert Leighton

"Never look directly at the sun, instead look at the sunflower."

-- Vera Nazarian

"You look beautiful as a sunflower and charming as a rose."

-- Avijeet Das

"Sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom." - Willa Cather

"Sunflowers are like people to me."

-- Joan Mitchell

"Be outstanding in your field."

-- Unknown

"Attention shifted… like sunflowers turning to the sun."

-- Khaled Hosseini

"They’re in bloom because they’ve found where they belong."

-- Mark Sippings

"Be like a flower and turn your face to the sun." - Kahlil Gibran

"The sunflowers turn their face toward the Sun, the fools, toward the darkness!"

-- Mehmet Murat Ildan

"She stood out like a sunflower in a field of wheat."

-- Jennifer L. Armentrout

"Do you know where the sunflowers’ lights go when they die?"

-- Adriani Putri

"I chose a sunflower because when darkness descends they close up to regenerate." - Halle Berry

"I remember my first role as a sunflower at nine."

-- Kay Kay Menon

"Like sunflowers, galaxies, and fingerprints, your life is an intricately designed spiral."

-- Kristen Lee

"And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood."

-- William Cullen Bryant

"The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy."

-- Thomas Bulfinch

"Yellow is my favorite summer color – it makes me feel like a sunflower."

-- Bria Vinaite

"Her smile put the sunflower to shame."

-- Jerry Spinelli

Inspirational Sunflower Quotes

There’s a lot we can learn from everything around us, but sunflowers particularly teach us how to stand tall and always face the sun -- and that’s a great life lesson.

Here are some of the most beautiful and inspirational sunflower quotes. Enjoy!

"Keep your face to the sunshine, and you cannot see the shadows. It’s what the flowers do."

-- Helen Keller

"Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. He attracts and follows." - Jean Paul Richter

"Pick up a sunflower and count the florets running into its centre… and you will find an extraordinary truth: recurring numbers, ratios and proportions."

-- Charles Jencks

"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

"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

"I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness. Because just like a rose is beautiful, so is a sunflower, so is a peony. I mean, all flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too."

-- Miranda Kerr

"To be nothing. Of all the ways the sunflower has of loving light, regret is the most beautiful shadow on the sun dial."

-- André Breton and Paul Eluard

"In a crowd of roses, choose to be a sunflower. Thornless. Unwithering. Abundant in seeds."

-- Jatawny M. Chatmon

"The morning glories and the sunflowers turn naturally toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems."

-- Richard Rohr

"'Bibliotropic,' Hugh said. 'Like sunflowers are heliotropic, they naturally turn towards the sun. We naturally turn towards the bookshop.'"

-- Jo Walton

"Many flowers open to the sun, but only one follows him constantly. Heart, be thou the sunflower, not only open to receive God’s blessing, but constant in looking to Him."

-- Jean Paul

"Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower."

-- John Harrigan

"True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time."

-- Marie Williams Johnstone

"Stand tall and face the sun."

-- Unknown

"The author O. Henry taught me about the value of the unexpected. He once wrote about the noise of flowers and the smell of birds – the birds were chickens and the flowers dried sunflowers rattling against a wall."

-- Chuck Jones

"Despite knowing they won’t be here for long, they still choose to live their brightest lives - sunflowers."

-- Rupi Kaur

"Tomorrow it may rain, so I’ll follow the sun."

-- The Beatles

"Always look at the brighter side of life, just like the sunflower, which looks upon the sun, not the dark clouds."

-- Unknown

"Big doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren’t better than violets."

-- Edna Ferber

"My work is the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird – equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums."

-- Mary Oliver

"Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. "

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"A sunflower teaches us so much about love." - Samrah Ahmad

"The head of all flower heads is one flower, the sunflower in the sky, that gives the other vivid color stemming from the inside."

-- Curtis Tyrone Jones

"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

"Sunflowers in spring, they’re just like you / Sunflowers wipe away your tears / All your doubts and fears / You were born to fly, so high."

-- Alice Peacock

"When a flower and a child come together, it makes two flowers or two children because every child is a flower, and every flower is a child."

-- Mehmet Murat Ildan

"During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. 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."

-- Calendar Girls Movie

"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

"Then one by one they raised their faces to the sky. Like a field of sunflowers."

-- Fiona Valpy

"I think it’s something to do with the nurturing side of the psyche; tying up a sunflower or whatever and helping it grow, it is just some kind of core human experience."

-- Joe Lycett

"Sunflowers end up facing the sun, but they go through a lot of dirt to find their way there."

-- J.R. Rim

"My will broke at the sound of his voice, and my head turned with as much inevitability as a sunflower turning its face to the sun."

-- Patricia Briggs

"Look at its shape, with vibrant yellows and oranges, a sunflower can brighten your day...it's as if it is smiling like a happy face painted on the sun... so if you do only one thing all day, let it be to smile, so you can brighten the day of others around you, just like the sunflower."

-- Bodhi Smith

Hippie Sunflower Quotes

What do you value most in your life? If your answer is love, peace and freedom then you’ll appreciate the following hippie sunflower quotes. Read through them, pick your favorite and share the joy that they bring with your friends.

"We’re all beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we’re all blessed by our own seed & golden hairy naked accomplishment."

-- Allen Ginsberg

"What god does a sunflower believe in? That’s the god I believe in."

-- Marty Rubin

"Smile to the world and smile to the people you love, as a sunflower smiles at the sun."

-- Remez Sasson

"The road to freedom is bordered with sunflowers." - Martin Firrell

"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

"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

"Which way will the sunflower turn surrounded by millions of suns?"

-- Allen Ginsberg

"A perfect beauty of a sunflower! A perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence! A sweet natural eye to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden monthly breeze!"

-- Allen Ginsberg

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wildflowers in our hair." - Susan Polis Schutz

"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."

-- Sheila Carey 

"I love a sunflower / and I believe in / love power."

-- Tears for Fears, "Sowing the Seeds of Love"

"Mom has a massive sunflower for a soul so big there’s hardly any room in her for organs."

-- Jany Nelson

"To just have one sunflower would make me happy."

-- Unknown

"She is a sunflower - strong and bold, and true to herself."

-- Unknown