"I saw the infinite, all-knowing and all-powerful God from behind as he went away, and I grew dizzy. I followed his footsteps over nature's fields and saw everywhere an eternal wisdom and power, an ins…"

"I am not ashamed to confess that I am a man who loves flowers."

"I have seen no one who has been able to distinguish the species of plants better than I have."

"The stinking corpse flower smells like a rotting corpse to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies, which are its pollinators. Nature is both beautiful and repulsive."

"The natural system is the highest goal of botany."