Quotation.Cloud - A repository of notable quotations from across time and space

   

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Quotations about birds

Henry David ThoreauA gun gives you the body, not the bird.

 - Henry David Thoreau

Tags:   birds  body  gun  

Wilbur WrightThe person who merely watches the flight of a bird gathers the impression that the bird has nothing to think of but the flapping of its wings. As a matter of fact this is a very small part of its mental labor. To even mention all the things the bird must constantly keep in mind in order to fly securely through the air would take a considerable part of the evening.

If I take this piece of paper, and after placing it parallel with the ground, quickly let it fall, it will not settle steadily down as a staid, sensible piece of paper ought to do, but it insists on contravening every recognized rule of decorum, turning over and darting hither and thither in the most erratic manner, much after the style of an untrained horse. Yet this is the style of steed that men must learn to manage before flying can become an everyday sport. The bird has learned this art of equilibrium, and learned it so thoroughly that its skill is not apparent to our sight. We only learn to appreciate it when we try to imitate it.

 - Wilbur Wright

Tags:   birds  flight  

Richard FeynmanYou can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts.

 - Richard Feynman

Tags:   birds  knowledge  languages  observation  

Benjamin FranklinI wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. . . . The turkey. . . is a much more respectable bird.

 - Benjamin Franklin

Tags:   birds  country  representative  

Henry Ward BeecherWe charge every man with positive dishonesty who drives birds from his garden in fruit-time. The fruit is theirs as well as yours. They took care of it as much as you did. If they had not eaten egg, worm, and bug, your fruit would have been pierced and ruined. They only come for wages. No honest man will cheat a bird of his spring and summer's work.

 - Henry Ward Beecher

Tags:   birds  gardening  

. . . birds will appeal most strongly to us through their songs. When your ears are attuned to the music of birds, your world will be transformed. Birds' songs are the most eloquent of Natures' voices.

 - Frank M. Chapman

Tags:   animals  birds  music  nature  songs  

Leonardo da VinciA bird is an instrument working according to a mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce, with all its movements.

 - Leonardo da Vinci

Tags:   birds  flight  

We are all interested in protecting certain varieties of birds. That cats destroy some birds, I well know, but I believe this legislation would further but little the worthy cause to which its proponents give such unselfish effort. The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.

 - Adlai Stevenson

Tags:   birds  cats  laws  legislation