A thorn is a changed bud. [ T. Lynch ]

Nip the briar in the bud. [ Proverb ]

The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower. [ William Cowper ]

The body, - that is dust; the soul, -
It is a bud of eternity. [ Nathaniel Culverwell ]

Loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. [ Shakespeare ]

In the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells; so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all. [ William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona,  Act I. Sc.1 ]

As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown. [ William Shakespeare ]

The daisy is fair, the day-lily rare,
The bud of the rose as sweet as it's bonnie. [ Hogg ]

She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm in the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. [ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 4 ]

Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. [ William Shakespeare ]

A flower that dies when first it begins to bud. [ William Shakespeare ]

Mornings are mysteries; the first world's youth,
Mans resurrection, and the future's bud
Shroud in their births. [ Henry Vaughan ]

Great deeds immortal are - they cannot die,
Unscathed by envious blight or withering frost,
They live, and bud, and bloom; and men partake
Still of their freshness, and are strong thereby. [ Aytoun ]

Pluck not a courtesy in the bud before it is ripe. [ Proverb ]

Death came with friendly care, the opening bud to heaven conveyed, and bade it blossom there. [ Coleridge ]

Divine love is a sacred flower, which in its early bud is happiness, and in its full bloom is heaven. [ Hervey ]

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]