The bird loves her nest. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Like the bird be thou,
That for a moment rests
Upon the topmost bough:
He feels the branch to bend
And yet as sweetly sings,
Knowing that he has wings. [ Victor Hugo ]
Take a bird from a clean nest. [ Gaelic Proverb ]
The gravest fish is an oyster,
The gravest bird's an owl,
The gravest beast's an ass,
And the gravest man's a fool. [ Proverb ]
Far shooting never killed bird. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
A light broke in upon my soul -
It was the carol of a bird;
It ceased - and then it came again
The sweetest song ear ever heard. [ Byron ]
Every bird likes its own nest best. [ Proverb ]
Every bird must hatch its own ecro. [ Proverb ]
In days of yore, the poet's pen
From wing of bird was plundered.
Perhaps of goose, but now and then,
From Jove's own eagle sundered.
But now, metallic pens disclose
Alone the poet's numbers;
In iron inspiration glows,
Or with the poet slumbers. [ John Quincy Adams ]
To sing like a bird called a swine. [ Proverb ]
Every bird is known by its feathers. [ Proverb ]
That is the bird that I would catch. [ Proverb ]
A bird in a cage is not half a bird. [ Beecher ]
The crow thinks her own bird fairest. [ Proverb ]
Every shot does not bring down a bird. [ Dutch Proverb ]
He never was good, neither egg nor bird. [ Proverb ]
Every bird thinks its own nest beautiful. [ Italian Proverb ]
As good be an addled egg as an idle bird. [ Proverb ]
A little string will tie up a little bird. [ Proverb ]
Stillest streams
Oft water greenest meadows; and the bird
That flutters least is longest on the wing. [ William Cowper ]
It is the early bird that catches the worm. [ Proverb ]
Fish are not to be caught with a bird-call. [ Proverb ]
An old bird is not to be caught with chaff. [ Proverb ]
It is an ill bird that bewrays its own nest. [ Proverb ]
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. [ Proverb ]
A little bird is content with a little nest. [ Proverb ]
If the partridge had the woodcock's thigh,
It would be the best bird that ever did fly. [ Proverb ]
Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy. [ Milton ]
He that will take the bird must not scare it. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
See the enfranchised bird, who wildly springs,
With a keen sparkle in his glowing eye
And a strong effort in his quivering wings,
Up to the blue vault of the happy sky. [ Mrs. Norton ]
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird.
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
In this world of dreams, I have chosen my part.
To sleep for a season and hear no word
Of true love's truth or of light love's art,
Only the song of a secret bird. [ Swinburne ]
O magic sleep! O comfortable bird
That broodest over the troubled sea of the mind
Till it is hushed and smooth! [ Keats ]
Love is a bird that sings in the heart of woman. [ A. Karr ]
Oh, the heart is a free and a fetterless thing--
A wave of the ocean, a bird on the wing. [ J. Pardoe ]
Gold! gold! in all ages the curse of mankind,
Thy fetters are forged for the soul and the mind.
The limbs may be free as the wings of a bird.
And the mind be the slave of a look and a word.
To gain thee men barter eternity's crown,
Yield honour, affection, and lasting renown. [ Park Benjamin ]
One beats the bush, and another catches the bird. [ Proverb ]
Oh! nature's noblest gift - my grey goosed quill:
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will,
Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen,
That mighty instrument of little men! [ Byron ]
Little by little the little bird builds its nest. [ Proverb ]
He that is without money is a bird without wings. [ Proverb ]
Frightening of a bird is not the way to catch it. [ Proverb ]
The thrush avoiding the trap, fell into bird-lime. [ Proverb ]
He has brought up a bird to pick out his own eyes. [ Proverb ]
A feather in hand is better than a bird in the air. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
A bird is known by its note, and a man by his talk. [ Proverb ]
The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing. [ Cowper ]
An ass is the gravest beast, an owl the gravest bird. [ Proverb ]
Better to be a bird in the wood than one in the cage. [ Italian Proverb ]
Deep in my heart subsides the infrequent word.
And there dies slowly throbbing like a wounded bird. [ Francis Thompson ]
Even when the bird walks one feels that it has wings. [ Lemierre ]
Throwing your cap at a bird is not the way to catch it. [ Proverb ]
You may gape long enough ere a bird fly into your mouth. [ Proverb ]
The fowler's pipe sounds sweet, till the bird is caught. [ Proverb ]
A bird may be caught with a snare, that will not be shot. [ Proverb ]
Call me pet names, dearest! Call me thy bird.
That flies to thy breast at one cherishing word,
That folds its wild wings there, ne'er dreaming of flight.
That tenderly sings there in loving delight!
Oh! my sad heart keeps pining for one fond word,
Call me pet names, dearest! Call me thy bird! [ Mrs. Osgood ]
If every bird take back its own feathers, you will be naked. [ Proverb ]
It is a foolish bird that stays the laying salt upon her tail. [ Proverb ]
He's in great want of a bird that will give a groat for an owl. [ Proverb ]
He will ill catch a bird flying that cannot keep his own in a cage. [ Proverb ]
God gives every bird its nest, but does not throw it into the nest. [ Josiah Gilbert Holland (pseudonym Timothy Titcomb) ]
No bird ever flew so high but it had to come to the ground for food. [ Dutch Proverb ]
Happiness is a bird that we pursue our life long, without catching it.
'Tis but a base ignoble mind that mounts no higher than a bird can soar. [ William Shakespeare ]
As is the bird, so is its song; as is the man, so is his manner of speech.
It is but a base, ignoble mind that mounts no higher than a bird can soar. [ William Shakespeare ]
More crafty than the cuckoo (who deposits her eggs in another bird's nest). [ Proverb ]
Man is free as the bird in the cage: he has powers of motion within certain limits. [ Lavater ]
The canary-bird sings the sweeter the longer it has been trained in a darkened cage. [ Jean Paul ]
Thou hast betrayed thy secret as a bird betrays her nest, by striving to conceal it. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. [ Ecclesiastes ]
No great composition was ever produced but with the same heavenly involuntariness in which a bird builds her nest. [ John Ruskin ]
Marble, pearl, rose, dove, all may disappear: the pearl melts, the marble breaks, the rose fades, the bird escapes. [ T. Gautier ]
A bird sings, a child prattles, but it is the same hymn; hymn indistinct, inarticulate, but full of profound meaning. [ Victor Hugo ]
To be generous, guiltless, and of a free disposition is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannonbullets. [ William Shakespeare ]
People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
The law is a pretty bird, and has charming wings. It would be quite a bird of paradise if it did not carry such a terrible bill. [ Douglas Jerrold ]
Foppery, being the chronic condition of women, is not so much noticed as it is when it breaks out on the person of the male bird. [ Balzac ]
Music was a thing of the soul; a rose-lipped shell that murmured of the eternal sea; a strange bird singing the songs of another shore. [ J. G. Holland ]
After all, the head only reproduces what the heart creates; and so we give the mocking-bird credit when he imitates the loving murmurs of the dove. [ G. J. W. Melville ]
The human soul is like a bird that is born in a cage. Nothing can deprive it of its natural longings, or obliterate the mysterious remembrance of its heritage. [ Epes Sargent ]
Love is a bird of passage that women await with curiosity in youth, retain with pleasure in maturer years, and allow to escape with regret when old age creeps upon them. [ A. Ricard ]
It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues. [ Simms ]
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into the nest. He does not unearth the good that the earth contains, but He puts it in our way, and gives us the means of getting it ourselves. [ J. G. Holland ]
Written on a Skull: Lamp, what hast thou done with the flame? Skeleton, what hast thou done with the soul? Deserted cage, what hast thou done with the bird? Volcano, what hast thou done with the lava? [ Mme. A. Segalas ]
But for the cravings of the belly not a bird would have fallen into the snare; nay, nay, the fowler would not have spread his net. The belly is chains to the hands and fetters to the feet. He who is a slave to his belly seldom worships God. [ Saadi ]
In Nature there is no dirt, everything is in the right condition; the swamp and the worm, as well as the grass and the bird, - all is there for itself. Only because we think that all things have a relation to us, do they appear justifiable or otherwise. [ Auerbach ]
There must be something beyond man in this world. Even on attaining to his highest possibilities, he is like a bird beating against his cage. There is something beyond, O deathless soul, like a sea-shell, moaning for the bosom of the ocean to which you belong! [ Chapin ]
When you take the wires of the cage apart, you do not hurt the bird, but help it. You let it out of its prison. How do you know that death does not help me when it takes the wires of my cage down? - that it does not release me, and put me into some better place, and better condition of life? [ Bishop Randolph S. Foster ]