Every rose has it's thorn

Posted by Graham Cambray on February 01, 2009 at 13:15

In Reply to: Every rose has it's thorn posted by Stephentshang on February 01, 2009 at 12:05:

: Does somebody know where was this saying "Every rose has it's thorn" derived from and what does it mean?

------------

For starters, here's a gardening reference! - albeit one having a bit of trouble with accented characters in foreign languages. Most of it copied below:

"Every rose has its thorn" is a famous proverb generally used to teach an important fact about human nature-nobody is perfect. Even the rose, beautiful and enticing, is not without its flaws; the prickly thorns of the rose can poke and pierce the flesh. In fact, there is a type of plant in the Rose family, Hawthorn, whose thorns are toxic to the eye, and scratching of the cornea with it often leads to loss of vision. Even something as beautiful as a rose has its flaws.

Alternatively, "Every rose has its thorn" can be understood to speak of life situations, teaching the valuable life lesson that even the best situations have their down-sides. It follows, therefore, that even the bad situations have their positive sides.

ORIGINS

The famous proverb "Every rose has its thorn" is believed to have originated either as a Dutch, French or Italian proverb. In French, the saying goes "Pas de rose sans épine". In Italian it is "Non c'è rosa senza spine."

A similar proverb, believed to be from Persia, says "He who wants a rose must respect the thorn". Here too the idea of imperfection is expressed, teaching that one can only have a loving relationship with another after respecting that individual's differences and flaws. The Greeks have a different proverb that also uses the symbolism of a rose and expresses a similar meaning to "Every rose has its thorn". "From a thorn comes a rose, and from a rose comes a thorn" teaches that something that begins as an imperfection or flaw can grow to be as beautiful as a rose. So too something as stunning as a rose is also not perfect, for within, there are also flaws. This proverb also speaks of the cycle of life, from life to death, death to life.

• Every rose has it's thorn Graham Cambray 01/February/09
  • Every rose has its thorn ESC 01/February/09
    • Every rose has its thorn Smokey Stover 03/February/09