Tomato Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old tomato quotes, tomato sayings, and tomato proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The tomato hides its griefs. Internal damage is hard to spot. Julia Child
The tomato offers its gift of fiery color and cool completeness. Pablo Neruda
A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins. Laurie Colwin
Of plants tomatoes seemed the most human, eager and fragile and prone to rot. John Updike
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Miles Kington
A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits. E. Lockhart
The difference between a bland tomato and great one is immense, much like the difference between a standard, sliced white bread and a crusty, aromatic sourdough. Yotam Ottolenghi
A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster: ruined. Andre Simon
The raw tomato, devoured in the garden when freshly picked, is a horn of abundance of simple sensations, a radiating rush in one's mouth that brings with it every pleasure. . . . a tomato, an adventure. Muriel Barbery
Pamper a tomato, overfeed it, overwater it and you will get a Paris Hilton of a tomato. Nigel Slater
Three tomatoes are walking down the street-a poppa tomato, a mamma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him and says, Catch up.  Uma Thurman
There is nothing better than picking up sun-warmed tomatoes and smelling them, feeling them and scrutinizing their shiny skins for imperfections, dreaming of ways to serve them. Jose Andres
You need an entire life just to know about tomatoes. Ferran Adria
Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans and peas. Horace Gray
A little tomato who knows her onions can go out with an old potato and come home with a lot of lettuce and a couple of carats. Herbert V. Prochnow
It's important to salt the tomatoes before draining them because that helps pull out the water. Fresh herbs, some garlic and pepper will also enhance the flavor. Geoffrey Zakarian
There's a point of no return when you're cooking tomatoes. A little too much heat, a little too long in the pot, and you lose that sense of fresh ripeness that makes tomatoes so great. Geoffrey Zakarian
If you're buying tomatoes pick them up and smell them-they should have a lovely perfume. They need to be kept at fifty degrees or above, particularly during the growing season, because that's when they develop their flavor. Julia Child
At the end of the day, you can't compete with Mother Nature. If you've got a great tomato, just a pinch of sea salt is all you need. Zac Posen
Be aware of what you cook tomatoes with. The high acid content of the tomato slows down the cooking process of some other foods. Dried beans cooked with tomatoes added to the pot can take up to 20 percent more cooking time than beans without tomatoes added. Andrew Zimmern
The potential hot tomato of today can turn into the cold pop tart of tomorrow, and I know that. Diane Lane
When I eat a tomato I look at it the way anyone else would. But when I paint a tomato, then I see it differently.  Henri Matisse