quotations about birds
A bird knows nothing of gladness,
Is only a song machine.
GEORGE MACDONALD
Book of Dreams
Many strange birds are on the air abroad,
Nor are all of one flight or of one force,
But each after his kind dissimilar.
GUINICELLI
Of Moderation and Tolerance
Heavenly bodies are nests of invisible birds.
DEJAN STOJANOVICH
The Creator
Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.
STEPHEN KING
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all Heaven in a rage.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
The blackbird amid leafy trees,
The lark above the hill,
Let loose their carols when they please,
Are quiet when they will.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The Fountain
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
"The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox", True Bills
Even when the bird walks one feels that it has wings.
LEMIÈRRE
Fastes
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
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
Yet this was but a simple bird,
Alone, among dead trees.
W.A. PERCY
Overtones
The bird is both ancient and excellent, sober and wise,
But he never could spend all the love that is sent for his eyes.
He bleats no instruction, he is not an arrogant drummer;
His gown is simplicity--blue as the smoke of the summer.
How patient he is as he puts out his wings for the blue!
His eyes are as old as the twilight, and calm as the dew.
SHAW NEILSON
The Crane is My Neighbor
Lo--a black line of birds in wavering thread
Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!
EMMA LAZARUS
The Cranes of Ibicus
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
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
"Critic and Poet: An Apologue"
The little birds of the field have God for their caterer.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
A small bird will drop frozen dead
From a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
D.H. LAWRENCE
Self-Pity
If I stayed here with you, girl
Things just couldn't be the same
Cause I'm as free as a bird now
And this bird you can not change
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
"Free Bird"
A little bird told me.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Henry IV
Upon his saddle sprung a bird
And crossed a thousand trees
Before a fence without a fare
His fantasy did please
And then he lifted up his throat
And squandered such a note
A Universe that overheard
Is stricken by it yet--
EMILY DICKINSON
"Upon his Saddle sprung a Bird"