A rainbow is more than just a pretty sight — it’s a symbolically rich natural phenomenon that often signifies hope, beauty, potential, and good fortune. The rainbow’s array of colors also exemplifies unity in diversity, and it’s been a powerful symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community since the 1970s.
Scientifically, each of the colors of the rainbow represents a different wavelength of light, with violet having the shortest wavelength and red the longest. They also carry emotional and emblematic power: Certain hues have differing psychological effects (e.g., blue is associated with serenity), while others hold unique historical and cultural meanings.
Artists, writers, and designers often rely on colors as tools to shape the tone and narrative of their work. Vincent Van Gogh, for instance, studied color theory intently, successfully harnessing the power of contrast in his famous paintings.
The rainbow is a vibrant testament to the wonders of not only the natural world, but also the intangible world of symbols and feelings. This selection of quotes helps harness the power and meaning of each color contained within those eye-catching arcs.
Red
I’m in love with red. I think it’s such a passionate color. Every flag of every country pretty much has red in it. It’s power, there’s no fence-sitting with red. Either you love it or you don’t. I think it’s blood and strength and life.
Red is the great clarifier: bright, cleansing, and revealing. It makes all colors beautiful. I can’t imagine becoming bored with red — it would be like becoming bored with the person you love.
Orange
Orange is a color of liberation, from the pains of hurtful love and inner insecurities. To channel orange is to truly be free, to be you.
The sunsets are mad orange fools raging in the gloom.
Yellow
There is a sun, a light, that for want of a better word I can only call yellow, pale sulphur yellow, pale golden citron. How lovely yellow is!
It is the color closest to light. In its utmost purity it always implies the nature of brightness and has a cheerful, serene, gently stimulating character. Hence, experience teaches us that yellow makes a thoroughly warm and comforting impression.
Green
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
For still there are so many things / that I have never seen: / in every wood in every spring / there is a different green.
Blue
Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones. Take blue in all its nuances, from the darkest to the lightest — it will always stay blue.
The inclination of blue to depth is so strong that its inner appeal is stronger when its shade is deeper. Blue is the typical heavenly colour … The ultimate feeling it creates is one of rest.
Indigo
Indigo, the deep blue contains an abundance of sapphires shining their light through the density, awakening and stirring our consciousness.
I wait for indigo, but even when the fashion is navy, you never get indigo, the glow, the long slow glow of indigo in the high night sky.
Violet/Purple
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
Purple puts us in touch with the part of ourselves that is regal.
Featured Image Credit: Abstracto Create/ Shutterstock
Nicole Villeneuve
Nicole is a writer, thrift store lover, and group-chat meme spammer based in Ontario, Canada.
