Bird Quotes - Page 26

• The fall of waters and the song of birds,
  And hills that echo to the distant berds,
  Are luxuries excelling all the glare
  The world can boast, and her chief favorites share.

  William Cowper

  Song, Retirement, Fall

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• Beasts, birds, and insects, even to the minutest and meanest of their kind, act with the unerring providence of instinct; man, the while, who possesses a higher faculty, abuses it, and therefore goes blundering on.

  Robert Southey

  Men, Abuse, Kind

  Robert Southey (1831). “Sir Thomas Marc Or Colloquies on the Progress und Prospects of Sceuly, 1”, p.153

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• Poets are far rarer birds than kings.

  Ben Jonson

  Kings, Poet

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• As it is the nature of a kite to devour little birds, so it is the nature of some minds to insult and tyrannize over little people; this being the means which they use to recompense themselves for their extreme servility and condescension to their superiors; for nothing can be more reasonable than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them which they themselves pay to all above them.

  Henry Fielding

  Mean, People, Mind

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• All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers; hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers.

  Alexander Pope

  Rain, Flower, Sky

  Alexander Pope, Pat Rogers (2008). “The Major Works”, p.5, Oxford University Press

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• Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought Mosaic; underfoot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone Of costliest emblem: other creature here Beast, bird, insect, or worm durst enter none; Such was their awe of man.

  John Milton

  Men, Rose, Hyacinths

  1665 Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.4, l.698-705.

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• Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
  Out of the mocking bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
  . . . .
  A reminiscence sing.

  Walt Whitman

  Musical, Cradle, Rocking Out

  "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" l. 1 (1881)

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• Oft have I heard both youths and virgins say,
  Birds chuse their mates and couple too this day:
  But by their flight I never can devine
  When I shall couple with my valentine.

  Robert Herrick

  Couple, Valentine, Youth

  Robert Herrick, Samuel Weber Singer (1856). “Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick ...”, p.243

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• It appears to be among the laws of nature, that the mighty of intellect should be pursued and carped by the little, as the solitary flight of one great bird is followed by the twittering petulance of many smaller.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Greatness, Law, Littles

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans”, p.166

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• He that hath a scrupulous conscience is like a horse that is not well weighed; he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge.

  John Selden

  Horse, Wells, Conscience

  John Selden (1821). “Selden's table talk”, p.43

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• Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.

  Francis Quarles

  Men, Self, Sea

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.85

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• The birds of the air die to sustain thee; the beasts of the field die to nourish thee; the fishes of the sea die to feed thee. Our stomachs are their common sepulchre. Good God! with how many deaths are our poor lives patched up! how full of death is the life of momentary man!

  Francis Quarles

  Death, Men, Air

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.53

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• The only bird that gives the poor a real tumble is the stork.

  Wilson Mizner

  Real, Giving, Birth

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• Men say their pinnacles point to heaven. Why, so does every tree that buds, and every bird that rises as it sings. Men say their aisles are good for worship. Why, so is every mountain glen and rough sea-shore. But this they have of distinct and indisputable glory,--that their mighty walls were never raised, and never shall be, but by men who love and aid each other in their weakness.

  John Ruskin

  Wall, Men, Sea

  John Ruskin (1872). “The Two Paths: Being Lectures on Art, and Its Application to Decoration and Manufacture, Delivered in 1858-9”, p.150

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• Few forms of life are so engaging as birds.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Form, Engaging

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, Pamela R. Matthews (2005). “Perfect Companionship: Ellen Glasgow's Selected Correspondence with Women”, p.232, University of Virginia Press

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• Without just one nest
  A bird can call the world home
  Life is your career

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Life, Home, Careers

  Chuck Palahniuk (2005). “Fight Club: A Novel”, p.64, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Chickens are cheerless birds, I advise you to keep geese which can be taught to follow like dogs, one needs all the companionship one can get in these days.

  Nancy Mitford

  Dog, Needs, Taught

  Nancy Mitford, Charlotte Mosley (1993). “Love from Nancy: the letters of Nancy Mitford”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

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• Blest be the gracious Power, who taught mankind
  To stamp a lasting image of the mind!
  Beasts may convey, and tuneful birds may sing,
  Their mutual feelings, in the opening spring;
  But Man alone has skill and power to send
  The heart's warm dictates to the distant friend;
  'Tis his alone to please, instruct, advise
  Ages remote, and nations yet to rise.

  George Crabbe

  Spring, Heart, Men

  George Crabbe (1858). “The Poetical Works of George Crabbe”, p.60

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• People are like birds - from a distance, beautiful: from close up, those sharp beaks, those beady little eyes.

  Richard J. Needham

  Beautiful, Distance, Eye

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• Butterflies and birds are like one perfect teaspoon of creation.

  Anne Lamott

  Butterfly, Perfect, Creation

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• That cruelty which children are permitted to show to birds and other animals will most probably exert itself on their fellow creatures when at years of maturity.

  Samuel Richardson

  Children, Maturity, Animal

  Samuel Richardson (1980). “A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments: a facsimile reproduction”, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint

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• Most cats feel that bird-catching is their duty; the instinct goes back to prehistoric times. Amber keeps in practice by chasing moths.

  Gladys Taber

  Cat, Practice, Amber

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• the skin of moss / holds the footprints of / star-footed birds.

  Nancy Willard

  Beauty, Stars, Skins

  Nancy Willard (2014). “A Nancy Willard Reader: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.23, Open Road Media

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• Man is born with the faculty of speech. Who gives it to him? He who gives the bird its song.

  Joseph Joubert

  Song, Men, Giving

  Joseph Joubert (1877). “Pensées of Joubert”, p.11

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• Even the best critical writing on Emily Dickinson underestimates her. She is frightening. To come to her directly from Dante, Spenser, Blake, and Baudelaire is to find her sadomasochism obvious and flagrant. Birds, bees, and amputated hands are the dizzy stuff of this poetry. Dickinson is like the homosexual cultist draping himself in black leather and chains to bring the idea of masculinity into aggressive visibility.

  Camille Paglia

  Writing, Ideas, Hands

  "Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson". Book by Camille Paglia, 1990.

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