Roses, Thomas Browne

When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.

- Thomas Browne, in Vulgar Errors, as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roses

Wisdom, The Bible

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver.

- The Bible, The Book of Proverbs 16:16

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wisdom

Necessity, Abigail Adams

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.

- Abigail Adams, in a letter to John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)