quotations about birds
Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
As in an idiot's brain remembered words
Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Poet's Tale", Tales of a Wayside Inn
We ate the birds. We ate them. We wanted their songs to flow up through our throats and burst out of our mouths, and so we ate them. We wanted their feathers to bud from our flesh. We wanted their wings, we wanted to fly as they did, soar freely among the treetops and the clouds, and so we ate them. We speared them, we clubbed them, we tangled their feet in glue, we netted them, we spitted them, we threw them onto hot coals, and all for love, because we loved them. We wanted to be one with them. We wanted to hatch out of clean, smooth, beautiful eggs, as they did, back when we were young and agile and innocent of cause and effect, we did not want the mess of being born, and so we crammed the birds into our gullets, feathers and all, but it was no use, we couldn't sing, not effortlessly as they do, we can't fly, not without smoke and metal, and as for the eggs we don't stand a chance. We're mired in gravity, we're earthbound. We're ankle-deep in blood, and all because we ate the birds, we ate them a long time ago, when we still had the power to say no.
MARGARET ATWOOD
"The Tent"
Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray,
With joyous music wake the dawning day!
ALEXANDER POPE
"Spring", Pastorals
Birds were created to record everything. They were not designed just to be beautiful jewels in the sky, but to serve as the eyes of heaven.
SUZY KASSEM
Rise Up and Salute the Sun
Hark, by the bird's song ye may learn the nest.
ALFRED TENNYSON
The Marriage of Geraint
The shell must break before the bird can fly.
ALFRED TENNYSON
The Ancient Sage
You must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.
DAVID LETTERMAN
The Late Show with David Letterman
When the little birds sweetly did sing
Lauds to their Maker early i' the morning.
STEPHEN HAWES
Passetyme of Pleasure
And as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Deserted Village
Gone to the world where birds are blest!
Where never cat glides o'er the green.
SAMUEL ROGERS
Epitaph on a Robin
Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
JAMES HOWELL
Proverbs
I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky.
MARK NEPO
Facing the Lion, Being the Lion
With Nature never do they wage
A foolish strife; they see
A happy youth, and their old age
Is beautiful and free.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The Fountain
A rare bird upon the earth.
JUVENAL
Satires
The dear Lord God, of His glories weary--
Christ our Lord had the heart of a boy--
Made Him birds in a moment merry,
Bade them soar and sing for his joy.
KATHERINE TYNAN HINKSON
The Making of Birds
Even when the bird walks one feels that it has wings.
LEMIÈRRE
Fastes
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,
Knowing that he has wings.
VICTOR HUGO
Wings
The bird is my neighbour, he leaves not a claim for a sigh,
He moves as the guest of the sunlight--he roams in the sky.
SHAW NEILSON
The Crane is My Neighbor
A bird knows nothing of gladness,
Is only a song machine.
GEORGE MACDONALD
Book of Dreams