Owl Quotes:

When we asked Pooh what the opposite of an Introduction was, he said "The what of a what?" which didn't help us as much as we had hoped, but luckily Owl kept his head and told us that the Opposite of an Introduction, my dear Pooh, was a Contradiction; and, as he is very good at long words, I am sure that that's what it is.

- A. A. Milne

topic: Opposites, Long, Owl, Long Words

Christopher Robin was home by this time, because it was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a Very Nearly tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl.

- A. A. Milne

topic: Home, Owl, Tea, Afternoon Tea, Tea Time

Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there.

- Adam Young

topic: Reality, Lovely, Owl, Past Present Future Love

She wants to be flowers, but you make her owls. You must not complain, then, if she goes hunting.

- Alan Garner

topic: Flower, Hunting, Owl

While Eeyore frets ... ... and Piglet hesitates ... and Rabbit calculates ... and Owl pontificates ...Pooh just is.

- Benjamin Hoff

topic: Owl, Piglet, Rabbits, Pooh And Piglet, Pooh Piglet

The rugs that I picked out and the pillows with the little owls, sort of like whimsical throw pillows - I feel like you can never enough whimsical throw pillows in your house, in your life. My husband probably disagrees.

- Busy Philipps

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Husband, House, Owl

We tried to talk about [the Owls' zone], but it's hard to replicate it. It's nearly impossible to penetrate that zone. What you do get are open outside shots. You're going to have to make some of them.

- Chris Mooney

topic: Owl, Impossible, Shots

An owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees the the less it talks.

- Christie Watson

topic: Bird, Owl, Wisest

I'm a bit of a night owl because that's when I feel the most creative and alive.

- Christina Aguilera

topic: Night, Creative, Owl, Night Owl

I live in Topanga Canyon, which is like a faux-rustic enclave in Los Angeles. I love the sounds of all the critters outside - the frogs, owls, crickets, and birds. Some of the birds around here are pretty accomplished musicians. You can learn a lot from them.

- Cliff Martinez

topic: Bird, Owl, Musician, Rustic, Faux

It is daffodil time, so the robins all cry, For the sun's a big daffodil up in the sky, And when down the midnight the owl call to-whoo! Why, then the round moon is a daffodil too; Now sheer to the bough-tops the sap starts to climb, So, merry my masters, it's daffodil time.

- Clinton Scollard

source: Clinton Scollard (1916). “Ballads, Patriotic & Romantic”

topic: Moon, Sky, Owl, Daffodil

If this were a made-up story, it would begin at night, with a storm blowing and owls hooting and rattling noises under the bed.

- Darren Shan

topic: Night, Owl, Storm, Made Up Stories

Words should wander and meander. They should fly like owls and flicker like bats and slip like cats. They should murmur and scream and dance and sing.

- David Almond

topic: Cat, Owl, Bats

Slowly my body grows a single sound, slowly I become a bell, an oval, disembodied vowel, I grow, an owl, an aureole, white fire poesia "Metamorfosi, I. Luna

- Derek Walcott

topic: Fire, White, Owl, Vowels

That's not precisely what I had in mind." Jamie, I had found out by accident a few days previously, had never mastered the art of winking one eye. Instead, he blinked solemnly, like a large red owl.

- Diana Gabaldon

topic: Art, Eye, Owl, Winking

The owl and the pussycat went to sea, / In a beautiful pea green boat. / They took some honey, and plenty of money, / Wrapped up in a five pound note.

- Edward Lear

source: "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" l. 21 (1871)

topic: Beautiful, Sea, Owl, Peas, Quince

And they brought an Owl, and a useful Cart, And a pound of Rice, and a CranberryTart, And a hive of silvery Bees. And they brought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws, And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws, and forty Bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree, And no end of Stilton Cheese.

- Edward Lear

source: 'The Jumblies' (1871)

topic: Pigs, Owl, Lovely, Rice, Stilton

I don't really start writing until later in the night. I'm a night owl.

- Ester Dean

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Writing, Night, Owl, Night Owl

I'm not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls.

- George Aiken

topic: Thinking, History, Owl

The owl flies, in the moonlight, over a field where the wounded cry out. Like the owl, I fly in the night over my own misfortune.

- Georges Bataille

topic: Night, Owl, Fields

A professional model is like a stuffed owl. These girls are alive.

- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

topic: Girl, Owl, Alive

Just then, with a wink and a sly normal lurch, The owl very gravely got down from his perch, Walked round, and regarded his fault-finding critic (Who thought he was stuffed) with a glance analytic.

- James Thomas Fields

source: James Thomas Fields, “The Owl-Critic”

topic: Owl, Fault Finding, Faults

More like some small, fierce bird of prey, something with a sharp bite. An owl perhaps, that speaks only when the rest of the world sleeps. Jenny will do well enough.

- Juliet Marillier

topic: Sleep, Bird, Owl, Jenny, Birds Of Prey

Owls hoot in B flat, cuckoos in D, but the water ousel sings in the voice of the stream. She builds her nest back of the waterfalls so the water is a lullaby to the little ones. Must be where they learn it.

- Karen Joy Fowler

topic: Voice, Water, Owl, Hoot

A legend, Kludd, is a story that you begin to feel in your gizzard and then over time it becomes true in your heart. And perhaps makes you become a better owl.

- Kathryn Lasky

source: Kathryn Lasky (2010). “Guardians of Ga'Hoole Collection: Legend of the Guardians”, p.24, Scholastic Inc.

topic: Heart, Owl, Stories

To find one's special quality One must lead a life of deep humility. To serve in this way Never question but obey Is the blessing of St Aggie's charity. - The owls of St. Aegolius

- Kathryn Lasky

topic: Humility, Blessing, Owl

Hush little owl, You're with Twi. I got the moves to get you by. Big bad crows. St. Aggie's scamps Ain't got nothin to show the champ. I'll pop a spiral With a twist, Do a three-sixty And scatter mist----

- Kathryn Lasky

topic: Moving, Crow, Owl, Hush

Thus will we deal with life, my little help-meet. Will we not, eh? What though it blink at us like an owl that is blinded by the sun, we will yet force it to smile.

- Leonid Andreyev

topic: Optimism, Owl, Sun, Little Help, Blinded

Who wouldn't want to see some owl eggs?" I said, "Come on then, they are down here." He said, "Tallulah, the answer to who wouldn't want to see some owl eggs is... me!!!!

- Louise Rennison

topic: Eggs, Owl, Answers

The truth is, we [women] live like bats, or owls, labor like beasts, and die like worms.

- Margaret Cavendish

topic: Owl, Bats, Truth Is

I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow and to the republicrats for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.

- Matt Groening

topic: Wine, Snakes, Owl, Flakes, Underpants

As when on some secluded branch in forest far and wide sits perched an owl, who, full of self-conceit and self-created wisdom, explains, comments, condemns, ordains and order things not understood, yet full of importance still holds forth to stocks and stones around - so sits and scribbles Mike.

- Michael Faraday

topic: Self, Order, Owl, Scribbles, Secluded

So why am I depressed? That's the million-dollar question, baby, the Tootsie Roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one. I don't know either. All I know is the chronology.

- Ned Vizzini

topic: Depression, Baby, Owl, Chronology

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of any angry man.

- Plutarch

topic: Anger, Men, Owl, Lamentation, Angry Man

I think the shocking thing to discover is the owls are not stupid and very feral, very hard to train.

- Robbie Coltraine

source: Interview with Steven Horn, www.ign.com. February 18, 2004.

topic: Stupid, Thinking, Owl, Shocking Things

Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed speak not a whispered word of them or they'll send the Talon for your head.

- Scott Snyder

topic: Owl, Gotham, Bed, Talons

I'm like an owl... I don't give a HOOT!

- Si Robertson

topic: Giving, Owl, Hoot

Perhaps he does not want to be friends with you until he knows what you are like. With owls, it is never easy-come-easy-go.

- T. H. White

topic: Owl, Want, Doe

Understanding is always in some sense retrospective, which is what Hegel meant by remarking that the owl of Minerva flies only at night.

- Terry Eagleton

topic: Night, Understanding, Owl, Minerva, Hegel

We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit.

- Tom Brown, Jr.

topic: Nature, Native American, Owl, Indomitable, Indomitable Spirit

I really liked the snake that breaks out of the cage in the beginning of the movie. I saw it in real life, and it was really cool. Really big and fat. The owls are cool as well, but you can't really pet them.

- Tom Felton

topic: Real, Snakes, Owl

The owl goes not into the nest of the lark.

- Victor Hugo

topic: Owl, Nests, Larks, Notre Dame

I like owls. I admire their intransigent spirit. I have respected them deeply ever since I met a baby owl in a wood, when it fell over dead, apparently from sheer temper, because I dared to approach it. It defied me first, and then died. I have never forgotten the horror and shame I experienced when that soft fluffy thing (towards which I had nothing but the most humanitarian motives) fell dead from rage at my feet.

- Vita Sackville-West

topic: Baby, Feet, Owl

As Hegel put it, only when it is dark does the owl of Minerva begin its flight. Only in extinction is the collector comprehend.

- Walter Benjamin

topic: Dark, Owl, Extinction, Minerva, Hegel

An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn't hear it--I breathed it into my ears.

- William Stafford

topic: Owl, Ears, Sound

The thing about owls is that they do sort of have this facial disc, which is unlike any other bird. They kind of have a face, more than like a dog or a giraffe. They have this weird, alien face that you can actually make expressive.

- Zack Snyder

topic: Dog, Bird, Owl

Suspicion is an owl that flies when the light is bad and catches only vermin for food.

- Austin O'Malley

topic: Light, Owl, Suspicion, Vermin

A wise old owl once lived in a wood, the more he heard the less he said, the less he said the more he heard, let's emulate that wise old bird.

- Flann O'Brien

source: Flann O'Brien (2007). “The Complete Novels”, Everyman's Library

topic: Wise, Bird, Owl

I come alive at night. I'm such a night owl.

- Mpho Koaho

topic: Night, Owl, Alive, Night Owl

When I see two owls and then two more owls and conclude that I see four owls, I am responding to reasons, and it better not be my choice to believe that two plus two always equals four. If I am a rational person, I will have that belief by necessity, whether I wanted to or not. So it's not that strange to discuss responding to reasons out of necessity.

- Nomy Arpaly

topic: Believe, Choices, Owl

"Top" management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I'm still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.

- Robert Townsend

topic: Top Management, Tree, Owl

I sit at the piano for a couple of hours and tinker away until I get something. I am a nocturnal spirit, like an owl.

- Thomston

topic: Couple, Piano, Owl, Nocturnal

The wailing owl screams solitary to the mournful moon.

- David Mallet

source: David Mallet (1759). “Miscellaneous poems”, p.79

topic: Moon, Owl, Scream, Wailing

When you hear Portuguese, if you're listening fleetingly, it's as if you're hearing Russian, which never happens with Spanish. Because the Portuguese and the Russians share the open vowels and the dark "L," the "owL" sound.

- Gregory Rabassa

source: Source: therumpus.net

topic: Dark, Owl, Listening, Vowels, Portuguese

Well,” said Owl, “the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.” “What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?” said Pooh. “For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.

- A. A. Milne

source: Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) ch. 4

topic: Mean, Long, Owl, Long Words, Winnie The Pooh Inspirational

Owl,' said Rabbit shortly, 'you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is easy thinking to be done in this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you and I must do it.

- A. A. Milne

topic: Mean, Thinking, Owl, Fluff

And if anyone knows anything about anything," said Bear to himself, "it's Owl who knows something about something," he said, "or my name's not Winnie-the-Pooh," he said. "which it is," he added. "so there you are.

- A. A. Milne

source: A. A. Milne (2012). “Winnie-the-Pooh”, p.41, Egmont UK

topic: Names, Owl, Bears

Owl explained about the Necessary Dorsal Muscles. He had explained this to Pooh and Christopher Robin once before and had been waiting for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing you can easily explain twice before anybody knows what you are talking about.

- A. A. Milne

source: A. A. Milne (2011). “The House at Pooh Corner”, p.109, Egmont UK

topic: Talking, Waiting, Owl

Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness. That is why owls make poor heroes.

- Patrick Rothfuss

source: Patrick Rothfuss (2010). “The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chonicle:”, p.514, Hachette UK

topic: Wise, Hero, Owl

The worst part of it is you don't know if he's barking at an owl, the moon or a burglar!" "That's one of the drawbacks of a limited vocabulary!

- Charles M. Schulz

topic: Moon, Vocabulary, Owl, Burglars, Drawbacks

There was a wise old owl who sat in a tree The less he spoke the more he heard The more he heard the less he spoke Why can't we be like that wise old owl in the tree? Speech must die to serve that which is spoken.

- Paul Ricoeur

topic: Wise, Tree, Owl

Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe, Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast; Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so.

- Lord Byron

source: 'Don Juan' (1819-24) canto 14, st. 50

topic: Song, Owl, Midnight, Told You So

I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat, And thrice as blind as any noonday owl, To holy virgins in their ecstasies.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

source: 'Idylls of the King' (1842-85) 'The Holy Grail' (1869) l. 862

topic: Cat, Blue, Owl, Blue Eyed, Thrice

Harry Potter, he sends a message on Owl Mail while us poor old muggles have to make do with instantaneous emails and texting. Oh, if only we could be like you Harry Potter, with your four day owl delivery!

- Craig Ferguson

topic: Owl, Email, Muggles, Instantaneous

If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner.

- Terry Goodkind

source: Terry Goodkind (2015). “Naked Empire”, p.315, Head of Zeus

topic: Thinking, Owl, Trying

The significant owl hoots in the night.

- Terry Pratchett

source: Terry Pratchett (2008). “Guards! Guards!: (Discworld Novel 8)”, p.7, Random House

topic: Night, Owl, Significant

If I was an owl, I would peck your eyes out. Wow this lyric is ****ing brilliant.

- Thom Yorke

topic: Eye, Owl, Wow

I think I'm a tiny bit like Harry 'cos I'd like to have an owl. Yeah, that's the tiny bit, actually.

- Daniel Radcliffe

topic: Thinking, Owl, Tiny

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs.

- John Milton

source: 'Sonnet' 12 'I did but prompt the age' (1673)

topic: Dog, Owl, Age

You don't need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?'

- John Oliver

source: "Cookie Monster Pretty Much Loses It After John Oliver Asks Him ‘What’s A Cookie?’" By Leigh Weingus, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 6, 2014.

topic: Numbers, People, Owl

Do you think I was born in a wood to be afraid of an owl?

- Jonathan Swift

source: Jonathan Swift (1761). “The Works of Dr Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin. Accurately Corrected by the Best Editions. With the Author's Life and Character; Notes Historical, Critical, and Explanatory; Tables of Contents, and Indexes. More Complete Than Any Preceding Edition. In Eight Volumes”, p.272

topic: Thinking, Owl, Woods

We have a very old conservation movement, particularly in the United States, which has focused on campaigns to protect endangered species: the spotted owl, the old-growth forest. But usually it stops there. To me, biodiversity is the full spectrum. Species conservation is not only about wilderness conservation. It’s also about protecting the livelihood of people even while changing the dominant relationship that humans have had with other species. In India, it’s an economic issue, not just an ecological one.

- Vandana Shiva

source: Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. September 29, 2011.

topic: Issues, People, Owl, Economic Issues, Endangered Species

I'm kind of a night owl.

- Barack Obama

source: Source: abcnews.go.com

topic: Night, Owl, Kind, Night Owl

Owls are known as lonely birds; but it is not known that they have the forest as their best friend!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Lonely, Bird, Owl

No owl is afraid of the night, no snake of the swamp and no traitor of the treason!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Night, Snakes, Owl

Midnight is another planet! When the clock strikes twelve and if you are asleep, wake up, friend, and discover the beauties of this new planet: Discover the silence; discover the tranquillity; speak to the owls, speak to the moon; greet the hedgehogs and disappear in the midst of the mists!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Moon, Silence, Owl, Hedgehogs, Tranquillity

In the enemy's territory, be as silent as the owl's wings; in friend's territory, be as cheerful as the nightingale's songs.

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Song, Wings, Owl

The inauspiciousness of the owl is nothing but the inauspiciousness of the man who thinks that owl is inauspicious!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Men, Thinking, Owl

Then at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear the note of an owl farther or nearer in the woods, and if near a lake, the semihuman cry of the loons at their unearthly revels.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Collected Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated): Philosophical and Autobiographical Books, Essays, Poetry, Translations, Biographies & Letters: Walden, Civil Disobedience, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, Slavery in Massachusetts, Walking…”, p.677, e-artnow

topic: Night, Lakes, Owl

Oh cat, I'd say, or pray: be-ootiful cat! Delicious cat! Exquisite cat! Satiny cat! Cat like a soft owl, cat with paws like moths, jewelled cat, miraculous cat! Cat, cat, cat, cat.

- Doris Lessing

topic: Cat, Owl, Paws

I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise - which means looking like an owl after you have behaved like a jackass.

- Ronald Reagan

source: Ronald Reagan (1975). “The quotable Ronald Reagan: the common sense and straight talk of former California Governor, Ronald Reagan”

topic: Mean, Owl, Important, Jackasses, Poise

The spider is the chamberlain in the Palace of the Caesars The owl is the trumpeter on the battlements of Afrasiyah.

- Bill Vaughan

topic: Owl, Spiders, Palaces, Chamberlain

I often have deer on my property and there's a fox and owls. You're not going to see that in the city.

- Billy Corgan

topic: Cities, Owl, Deer

You can't hoot with the owls and then soar with the eagles

- Hubert H. Humphrey

topic: Eagles, Owl, Soar, Hoot

For the poor wren (The most diminutive of birds) will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.

- William Shakespeare

source: 'Macbeth' (1606) act 4, sc. 2, l. 8

topic: Fighting, Bird, Owl, Wrens, Young Ones

The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits.

- William Shakespeare

source: "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

topic: Owl, Spirit, Wonder, Quaint, Hoot

Where the bee sucks, there suck I In the cow-slip's bell i lie There I couch when owls do cry

- William Shakespeare

source: William Shakespeare, “Tempest, Act V, Scene I [Where The Bee Sucks, There Suck I]”

topic: Lying, Owl, Bells

Thou ominous and fearful owl of death.

- William Shakespeare

source: William Shakespeare, Michael Taylor (2004). “Henry VI, Part One”, p.200, Oxford University Press, USA

topic: Death, Owl, Ominous

The snowy owl has eyes that look just like mine, especially when it widens them. And while I stand there, staring at it, lowering my sunglasses, something unspoken passes between me and the bird - there's this weird kind of tension, a bizarre pressure, that fuels the following, which starts, happens, ends, very quickly.

- Bret Easton Ellis

source: Bret Easton Ellis (2014). “American Psycho: Picador Classic”, p.240, Pan Macmillan

topic: Eye, Bird, Owl, Snowy

If we don't preserve forest habitat for spotted owls, then soon we won't have trees to refresh the air we breathe. And we're realizing that this applies to social ecology, as well.

- Sam Keen

source: Source: www.scottlondon.com

topic: Air, Tree, Owl

The owls are gathering; find out why soon.

- J. K. Rowling

topic: Owl, Gathering

Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls. We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat. George! Only joking, Mum.

- J. K. Rowling

topic: Owl, Hogwarts, Toilet Seat, Weasley, Fred And George

Don't count your owls before they are delivered.

- J. K. Rowling

topic: Owl

My very small part in WATCHMEN is that, every now and then, Alan would phone me: ''Neil, you're an educated man. Where does it say...'' He would need a quote from the Bible, or an essay about owls. I was his occasional research assistant.

- Neil Gaiman

topic: Men, Phones, Owl, Small Parts

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' by Ambrose Bierce.

- Kurt Vonnegut

source: Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.7, Seven Stories Press

topic: Bridges, Owl, Stories

You know what I hate the most? People that imitate owls.

- Emo Philips

topic: Hate, People, Owl

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

- Ernest Hemingway

source: Ernest Hemingway (2014). “The Hemingway Collection”, p.2301, Simon and Schuster

topic: Writing, Owl, Serious, Solemnity, Solemn

I was born a jackdaw; why should I try to be an owl?

- Ogden Nash

topic: Owl, Trying, Born