birds Quotes

“The ball flew at him and he was conscious of its bird-form and white flapping wings he heard a noise like the bang of a firecracker at his feet and Sam had the ball in his mitt. Unable to believe his ears he heard Mercy intone a reluctant strike.”

“So like children, we begin again... to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly.”

“Then I will not repine Knowing that bird of mine Though flown shall in a distant tree Bright melody for me Return.”

He learned to communicate with birds and discovered their conversation was fantastically boring. It was all to do with windspeed, wingspans, power-to-weight ratios and a fair bit about berries.

“If birds can glide for long periods of time, then… why can’t I?”

“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.”

“Excepting for that one walk when he left jail, when he was too much worried to notice anything, and for a few times that he had rested in the city parks in the winter time when he was out of work, he had literally never seen a tree! And now he felt like a bird lifted up and borne away upon a gale; he stopped and stared at each new sight of wonder—at a herd of cows, and a meadow full of daisies, at hedgerows set thick with June roses, at little birds singing in the trees.”

“Man, by reason of his greater intellect, can more reasonably hope to equal birds in knowledge than to equal nature in the perfection of her machinery.”

“Our own growing belief that man might nevertheless learn to fly was based on the idea that while thousands of the most dissimilar body structures, such as insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, were flying every day at pleasure, it was reasonable to suppose that man might also fly.”

“Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around. You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around.”

“Our laughter kept the feathers in the air. I thought about birds. Could they fly if there wasn’t someone, somewhere, laughing?”

“Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song.”

“The same substance composes us--the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star--we are all one, all moving to the same end.”

“The Great Birthday Bird! [...] This bird has a brain. He’s most beautifully brained with the brainiest bird-brain that’s ever been trained.”

“Sudden and magnificent, the sun’s broad golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn.”

“Frightful fluffed her nubby feathers and shook. I picked her up in the cup of my hands and held her under my chin.”

“Like two solitary birds flying the great prairies by celestial reckoning, all of these years and lifetimes we have been moving toward one another.”

“Kivi’s flight moved in exact parallel. Once more it seemed as if his albatross were leading him onward, just as he had led the canoe out of the passage of Hikueru.”

“Ani was eager to learn the voice of every bird that nested on the palace grounds, but the swan pond drew her return day after day. She loved to watch them swim so slowly that the water hardly rippled and watch every silent, mild movement shimmer into meaning. Soon her throat and tongue could make nearly all the sounds of the swans, and she trumpeted gleefully.”

“Sweet wandering bird that singest on thy way, Or mournest yet the time for ever past, Watching night come and spring receding fast, Day’s bliss behind thee and the seasons gay,— If thou my griefs against thine own couldst weigh, Thou couldst not guess how long my sorrows last; Yet thou mightst hide thee from the wintry blast Within my breast, and thus my pains allay. Yet may not all thy woes be named with mine, Since she whom thou dost mourn may live, yet live, But death and heaven still hold my spirit’s bride; And all those long past days of sad decline With all the joys remembered years can give Still bid me ask ‘Sweet bird! with me abide!‘”

“Do you know,” Peter asked, “why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”

″‘The Eagles! The Eagles!’ he shouted. ‘The Eagles are coming!‘”

“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”

“The poor child felt like a little bird that is placed in a glittering cage.”

“While I agree that I’ve never seen a kiwi bird fly, I disagree with the statement that they can’t fly. How do we know? Couldn’t it just be that they choose not to? You’ll never see me running, but there’s a good chance I could.”

“Once I thought they sang because everything was right with the world... I now know I was wrong. They sing because they’re feeble-minded.”

“There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. And on the whole enormous prairie there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there.”

″‘I never heard a mockingbird sing so early,’ said Ma, and Pa answered, softly, ‘He is telling us good-by.‘”

“You can smell it, too. Death. Dying. Decay. The sky is falling, the sky is dying, the sky is dead.”

“Only a box of birds, Malorie thinks. Yet, it does feel like progress.”

“One should be light like a bird and not like a feather.”

“I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps”

“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. ”

“No self-respecting cat ever slept with a flock of birds,” she scolded. “Or ate worms, or flew, or did his laundry in Mrs. Doohiggy’s birdbath.”

“Together we would walk along the cliff looking at the sea, and though the white men’s ship did not return that spring, it was a happy time. The air smelled of flowers and birds sang everywhere.”

″ ‘Who are you?’ I whispered. He shrugged again. ‘Something,’ he said. ‘Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.’ He laughed. ‘Something like that.’ ”

″ ‘If you are a gardener and find me,’ said the little bunny, ‘I will be a bird and fly away from you.’ ”

″ ‘If you become a bird and fly away from me,’ said his mother, ‘I will be a tree that you come home to.’ ”

″‘This is interesting-very interesting-something quite new. Give me the Bird’s A.B.C first-slowly now.’ So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals had a language of their own and could talk to one another.”

“Through the charred forest, over hot ash, runs Dog, with a bird clamped in his big, gentle mouth.”

“I got word of a bird that does something that’s almost unheard of! It’s hard to believe but this bird called the Pelf lays eggs that are three times as big as herself! How that Pelf ever learned such a difficult trick I never found out. But I found that egg quick. And I managed to get it down out of the nest and home to the kitchen along with the rest.”

“And some fellows in Zummz who I happened to know just happened to capture a thousand or so, and they wrapped up their eggs and they mailed them by air Marked Special Delivery, Handle with Care.”

“In the meanwhile, of course, I was keeping real busy collecting the eggs of the three-eyelashed Tizzy. They’re quite hard to reach, so I rode on the top of a Ham-ikka-Schnim-ikka-Schnam-ikka Schnoop.”

“And I captured the egg of a Grickily Gractus who lays’em high in a prickily cactus.”

“Who could know that a baby bird was about to fall from its nest? Max knew, Max saw it from his open window. This bird was not ready to fly.”

“The baby bird fell. Max flew to save it. Max flew the baby bird back to its nest.”

“The trees filled with birds which flew still nearer the star.”

“The routes birds follow, as they migrate southwards or northwards, in autumn or in spring, rarely cross the city. Their flights cleave the heavens high above the striped humps of fields and along the edge of woods...”

“Katy stayed in the treetops, no one ever found her. Except for the squirrels and the birds all around her. At last she was free, just as free as the breeze, And how Katy did love it up there in the trees.”

“Street Show Puff, puff, puff. How the trumpets blow All you little boys and girls come and see the show. One-two-three, the Cat runs up the tree; But the little Bird he flies away- ‘She hasn’t got me!’ ”

“Smirre Fox thought he could catch her without much effort, but he was afraid of failure now, and concluded to let her fly past–unmolested.”

“And instead of a nice dish of minnows- they had a roasted grasshopper with lady-bird sauce; which frogs consider a beautiful treat; but I think it must have been nasty!”

″ ‘Hooray! shouted Yertle. ‘I’m king of the trees! I’m king of the birds! And I’m king of the bees! I’m king of the butterflies! King of the air! Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair! I’m Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! For I am the ruler of all that I see!’ ”

“Some wrens had made a nest inside a flowerpot. It looked very cosy. ‘I should sleep in one of those!’ said Kipper. But Kipper would not fit inside a flowerpot.”

“The garden always made Mog very excited. She smelled all the smells. She chased the birds. She climbed the trees. She ran round and round with a big fluffed-up tail. And then she forgot the cat flap”

“Mog was very sleepy. She found a nice warm, soft place and went to sleep. She had a lovely dream. Mog dreamed that she had wings. She could fly everywhere. She could fly faster than the birds, even quite big birds...Suddenly she woke up.”

“Choco was a little bird, who lived all alone.”

“He has green parakeets who pick holes in his suit...”

“The story’s sentiments are confused; both fish and bird seem completely at home in their new worlds. Only at the very last second do either of them experience difficulties that make them switch back.”

″ And even when he climbed to the top of the tallest tree. Wilbur climbed to the top of the tallest tree to hide. He looked ridiculous and he knew it. Even the birds laughed at him.”

“As the wedding party moved through the forest, brightly plumed birds darted about in the cool green shadows beneath the trees. Though anxious about her sister, Nyasha was soon filled with excitement about all there was to see.”

“Great day to sing up on a wire.”

“The sun was shining, the birds were flying, the grass smelled sweet.”

“One morning Al woke up and shrieked. ‘Eddie! Look at us! We’re turning into birds!‘”

“Fishes, both large and small, glide between the branches, as birds fly among the trees.”

“Birds sang and brought them food. They ate. They drank. They swam. They sunbathed. They never had it so good. ‘So, Al, is this so terrible?’ they large bird asked. ‘What a life,’ Al cooed. ‘A guy could live like this forever.‘”

″‘I don’t want to be a bird! I’d rather mop floors!‘”

“There was a Young Lady whose bonnet Came untied when birds sate upon it; But she said, ‘I don’t care! all the birds in the air Are welcome to sit on my bonnet.’ ”

“There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, ‘It is just as I feared! - Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard.’ ”

“Oh, how good everything tasted in that bower, with the fresh wind rustling the poplar leaves, sunshine and sweet woods smells about them, and birds singing overhead! No grown-up dinner party ever had half so much fun. Each mouthful was a pleasure; and when the last crumb had vanished, Katy produced the second basket...”

“The only bird that Papa had was a stuffed screech owl in his study, and this had been the gift of Mrs. Moffat, who had donated it to him when she had moved from the Yellow House on New Dollar Street, because, in her new and smaller house on Ashbellows Place, she had no attic...”

“Only the sanctimonious birds that perched on the church’s dome ever saw Smith’s progress entire, and as their beady eyes followed him, the chattered savagely, ‘Pick-pocket! Pick-pocket! Jug him! Jug-jug-jug him!’ as if they’d been appointed by the Town to save it from such as Smith.”

“Losing concentration, Yukin almost fell as the land dipped beneath the grasses of the plains. Somehow he kept his footing, aware that the hunter birds were cruising the air currents in search of him. He knew he had no choice other than to flee.”

“When the Little House saw the green grass and the birds singing, she didn’t feel sad anymore.”

“Every morning the birds sing, and the Owl flies back to his dark hole. When the birds see him, they mob him, remembering his trick. He dare only come out at night, to scrape a bare living on rats, mice and beetles.”

“But the birds had no more interest in anything that Owl said. They only wanted to die.”

“He wanted to keep the birds in his power.”

“Closer and closer swooped the fishing birds near Ping. Now Ping could see shining rings around their necks, rings of metal made so tight the birds could never swallow the big fish they were catching. ”

“You have yellow eyes like a stone curlew’s, so I’ll name you Alfanhui because that is the name the stone curlews call to each other.”

“In the middle of the ring of birds on the ceiling, a circle seemed to open up to which all the primitive colors were returning. The thousand greens of the jungles, the white of waterfalls and, from the land of wading birds, the pink and grey of the wetlands, with a red sun trembling on the muddy, bloodshot surface.”

“The fog of silence and solitude vanished, and forgotten visions awoke as the music of the wind and the rain met the dead colors of the birds.”

“The bird looked much smaller dead than it had alive. Jody felt a little mean pain in his stomach, so he took out his pocketknife and cut off the bird’s head.”

“If you were a bird, and lived on high, You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by, You’d say to the wind when it took you away: ‘That’s where I wanted to go today!‘”

“Time to Rise A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon the window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: ‘Ain’t you ‘shamed, you sleepy-head!’ ”

“Lovely thoughts came flying to meet me like birds. They weren’t my thoughts. I couldn’t think anything half so exquisite. They came from somewhere.”

“What a joyful thing it is to awaken, on a fresh glorious morning, and find the rising sun staring into your face with dazzling brilliancy! -to see the birds twittering in the bushes, and to hear the murmuring of a rill, or the soft hissing ripples as they fall upon the sea-shore!”

“In Montana, ospreys lived in the cottonwoods all along the big rivers, where they dived on trout and whitefish. Roy had been pleasantly surprised to find that Florida had ospreys, too. It was remarkable that the same species of bird was able to thrive in two places so far apart, and so completely different. If they can do it, Roy thought, maybe I can too.”