Bird Quotes - Page 21

• More hearts are breaking in this world of ours Than one would say. In distant villages And solitudes remote, where winds have wafted The barbed seeds of love, or birds of passage Scattered them in their flight, do they take root, And grow in silence, and in silence perish.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Heart, Wind, Roots

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1849). “The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ; Complete in One Volume”, p.73

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• 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

  Dream, Thinking, Brain

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.743, Delphi Classics

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• No man had ever heard a nightingale, When once a keen-eyed naturalist was stirred To study and define -- what is a bird.

  Emma Lazarus

  Men, Study, Naturalist

  Emma Lazarus (2015). “The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume I: Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic”, p.215, Courier Corporation

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• Old age is
  a flight of small
  cheeping birds
  skimming
  bare trees
  above a snow glaze.
  Gaining and failing
  they are buffeted
  by a dark wind -
  But what?
  On harsh weedstalks
  the flock has rested -
  the snow
  is covered
  with broken
  seed husks
  and the wind tempered
  with a shrill
  piping of plenty.

  William Carlos Williams

  Dark, Wind, Snow

  "To Awaken an Old Lady". The Dial, August 1920.

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• A novel it's different. It's kind of exhilarating not to have to cut to the bone constantly. Oh, well I can go over here for a moment. I can say what I think the guy was thinking or what the day looked like or what the bird was doing. If you do that as a playwright, you're dead.

  David Mamet

  Cutting, Thinking, Guy

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• A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, but remember also that a bird in the hand is a positive embarrassment to one not in the poultry business.

  George Ade

  Hands, Two, May

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• The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free.

  Julian Assange

  Political Will, West, Speech

  "Julian Assange answers your questions". Q&A, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2010.

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• I avoid the carwash when I think it might rain anytime in the near future, which means I drive around the majority of the time in a pollen and bird poop covered car. This presents a stand off between Neat Freakshow and Practical Pennypincher, and Neat Freak usually triumphs. And then it rains.

  Kristin Armstrong

  Rain, Mean, Thinking

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• Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal of his candles on a rejoicing night, let her look to him and keep him out of harm's way; or the world will be apt to say, she has a mind to be a widow before her time. She ought, in such cases, to exert the authority of the curtain lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious disposition, to tame him, as they do birds of prey, by dinning him in the ears all night long.

  Joseph Addison

  Husband, Night, Men

  Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell (1811). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: With the Exception of His Numbers of the Spectator”, p.48

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• As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

  Doris Lessing

  Taken, Son, Men

  Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.31, Canongate Books

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• Men who stand on any other foundation than the rock Christ Jesus are like birds that build in trees by the side of rivers. The bird sings in the branches, and the river sings below, but all the while the waters are undermining the soil about the roots, till, in some unsuspected hour, the tree falls with a crash into the stream; and then its nest is sunk, its home is gone, and the bird is a wanderer.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Jesus, Fall, Home

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.37

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• I'd sooner exchange ideas with the birds on earth than learn to carry on intergalactic communications with some obscure race of humanoids on a satellite planet from the world of Betelgeuse.

  Edward Abbey

  Communication, Race, Ideas

  Edward Abbey (1988). “Desert Solitaire”, p.7, University of Arizona Press

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• The bird Imagination, That flies so far, that dies so soon; Her wings are colored like the sun, Her breast is colored like the moon.

  Elinor Wylie

  Moon, Wings, Imagination

  Elinor Wylie, “The Falcon”

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• You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,You are soft as the nesting dove.Come to my heart and bring it restAs the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

  Paul Laurence Dunbar

  Sweet, Love You, Home

  Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Invitation To Love”

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• What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?

  Countee Cullen

  Strong, Stars, Men

  1925 On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

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• We're vulnerable to repeating history, especially if we don't know what's driving us. For example, it may be a family tradition to marry someone with addiction problems, or who is an injured bird in need of caretaking. Or, you may be drawn to guys who remind you of your distant, unavailable father -- or your ill-tempered mother -- with the unconscious belief that you can take an old story, and through the power of your love, give it a new, happy ending.

  Harriet Lerner

  Mother, Father, Giving

  "The Top 10 Reasons Women Re-Marry The Wrong Guys" by Harriet Lerner, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 7, 2012.

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• The flesh is sweeter, where the creature has some chance for its life; for that reason, I always use a single ball, even if it be at a bird or a squirrel; besides, it saves lead, for, when a body knows how to shoot, one piece of lead is enough for all, except hard-lived animals.

  James F. Cooper

  Hunting, Animal, Squirrels

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• World's flying like birds; my car's in flight. The city lights are spattered on my windshield like the fragments of the night. And I'm in flight. The sky's a wheel, a merry-go-round of wings and snow and steel, and fire. We'll tread the sky, we'll ride the scarlet horses.

  Tanith Lee

  Horse, Night, Fire

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• In one period the grossest ignorance and barbarism prevailed in the world; and afterwards, in a more enlightened age, the most daring infidelity, and contempt of God; so that the world which was once over-run with ignorance, now by wisdom knew not God, but changed the glory of the incorruptible God as much as in the most barbarous ages, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Nay, as they increased in science and politeness, they ran into more abundant and extravagant idolatries.

  William Carey

  Running, Ignorance, Men

  "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians". Book by William Carey, 1792.

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• When the Sun of compassion arises darkness evaporates and the singing birds come from nowhere.

  Amit Ray

  Compassion, Darkness, Singing

  Amit Ray (2012). “Nonviolence: The Transforming Power”, p.26, INNER LIGHT PUBLISHERS

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• We can love religion as we need rituals, but The Holy Spirit is a bird, free to fly and land where it likes. We don't actually need 'religion' in order to have a relationship with The Holy Spirit. Too many wars an violence over religion.We need to see it's all the same spirit and we are part of that spirit so we shouldn't be fighting over what name we call it. It's a free bird.

  Sinead O'Connor

  War, Fighting, Order

  "Sinead O'Connor on Pope Benedict and Catholic abuse scandal". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. March 26, 2010.

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• I'd fly. I sit and watch the birds go by and say, I wish I could do that.

  Kristin Kreuk

  Wish, Watches

  "25 Hottest Stars Under 25". Teen People, 2002.

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• These are just the rules and regulations Of the birds, and the bees The earth, and the trees, Not to mention the gods, not to mention the gods.

  Rufus Wainwright

  Tree, Rules And Regulations, Earth

  Song: Rules and Regulations, 2007

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• Dwelling beside a body of water is tonic for the weary psyche. Sea smells, sea birds, seawrack, sands - alternately cool, warm, moist and dry - a taste of brine and the presence of the rocking, slopping bluegraygreen spit-flecked waters, has the effect of rinsing the emotions, bathing the outlook, bleaching the conscience.

  Roger Zelazny

  Sea, Smell, Dwelling

  Roger Zelazny (2001). “Isle of the Dead ; Eye of Cat”, Ibooks

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• We lived in places that we never knew. We could not name the birds perched on our sill, Or see the trees we cut down for our view. What we possessed we always chose to kill. "We claimed the earth but did not hear her claim, And when we died, they laid us on her breast, But she refuses us until we earn Forgiveness from the lives we dispossessed.

  Dana Gioia

  Cutting, Views, Names

  Dana Gioia (2016). “99 Poems: New & Selected”, p.49, Macmillan

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