Andre Maurois Quotes

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.

For why trap what is already trapped? It is only in flight that we know the freedom of the bird

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.

I have been desperate to escape for so many years now, it is routine for me to try to escape.

Little islands are all large prisons: one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.

I escaped one time. In 1971 I was in the free world for six weeks.

You can cage the songbird, but you can't make her sing. And you can trap the free bird, but you'll have to clip her wings.

We are all living in cages with the door wide open.

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.

Honestly, I thought I was going to be a kite forever, suffocating inside a little feathery prison. And he had the nerve to make fun!

Coerced innocence is like an imprisoned lark,--open the door, and it is off forever. The bird that roams through the sky and the groves unrestrained knows how to dodge the hawk and protect itself; but the caged one, the moment it leaves its bars and bolts behind, is pounced upon by the fowler or the vulture.

A bird in a cage is not half a bird.

freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity.

Can the imagination, any more than the boy, be held prisoner ?" - from the foreword to the 1976 edition of "The Painted Bird

In chains and darkness, wherefore should I stay, And mourn in prison, while I keep the key.

Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.

How can a bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?

A bird on a tether, no matter how long the rope, can always be pulled back.

...she could only wait for someone, something, to free her from the invisible chains that bound her.

The sight of a cage is only frightening to the bird that has once been caught.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.

If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?

I wouldn't steal anything because stealing is wrong. If I had to, I'd steal a caged bird and set it free.

Free the snow globes!