Portal:Birds/Quotes

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“ If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands. ”
--Douglas Adams

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“ But the moment a bird was dead, no matter how beautiful it had been in life, the pleasure of possession became blunted for me. ”
--John James Audubon

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“ I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. ”
--Joseph Addison, The Spectator, 1712

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“ Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. ”
--W. H. Hudson, Green Mansions

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“ A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. ”
--Moslih Eddin Saadi

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“ When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head! ”
--William Blake

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“ It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. ”
--Aesop

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“ One swallow does not make a summer. ”
--Aristotle

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“ A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because

it has a song.

 ”
--Chinese proverb

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“ When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck

and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.

 ”
--Richard C. Cushing

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“ If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen. ”
--Nikita Khrushchev

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“ It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise. ”
--Mark Twain

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“ To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds. ”
--Gore Vidal

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“ The bird of paradise alights only on the hand that does not grasp. ”
--John Berry

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“ You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren. ”
--William Henry Hudson

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“ Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion? ”
--Friedrich Nietzsche

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“ Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts. ”
--Coleman Cox

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“ The crow wished everything was black, the owl, that every thing was white. ”
--William Blake

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“ People expect the clergy to have the grace of a swan, the friendliness of a sparrow, the strength of an eagle and the night hours of an owl - and some people expect such a bird to live on the food of a canary. ”
--Edward Jeffrey, a British clergyman, The New York Times, June 21, 1964

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