Andersen's Fairy Tales Appearances Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Tale Title.Paragraph)

Quote #10

The next day the master and mistress went down into the garden. They wanted to pick one of the marvelous flowers themselves... At last they called the gardener and asked him where the blue lotus flower grew... "It is only a humble flower from the kitchen garden. But beautiful it is, like a blue cactus, though it is only an artichoke." (The Gardener and His Master.31-33)

How can something so humble be so beautiful? The noble master is clueless on this front, but the gardener knows how to recognize beauty wherever he sees it, even if it's just the flower of a common (but tasty) plant like the artichoke. This seems like a worthy lesson: even common things can be beautiful, if you look at them the right way.