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Nightingales Quotes

Browse 128 quotes about Nightingales.

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Nightingales Quotes

“Thematically, we're both [with Kristin Hannah ] interested in women's experiences and women's stories, and until now, you've mostly dealt with how it feels to be a wife/mother/sister/name your poison in today's world. But this story [The Nightingale ] is told from the perspective of two sisters during the German occupation of France in WWII.”

WorldFeelsTwoStoriesTodayMotherNamesWifePerspectiveFrancePoisonOccupationWwiiNightingalesToday's WorldTwo SistersWife Mother
Author:Megan Chance
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“In doing the research, I found myself consumed by a single, overwhelming question, as relevant today as it was seventy years ago: When would I, as a wife and mother, risk my life - and more importantly, my child's life - to save a stranger? That question is at the very heart of The Nightingale. I hope that everyone who reads the novel will ask themselves the question.”

YearsHeartChildrenTodayMotherAsksFoundNovelWifeRiskResearchYears AgoStrangerMy ChildrenOverwhelmingRelevantSeventiesConsumedNightingalesWives And Mothers
Author:Megan Chance
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“When I was 12 years old, I read Nancy Drew mysteries and biographies of Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale and books about girls who love horses or go to nursing school. I belonged to the Girl Scouts and got A's in school and rarely disobeyed my parents. I still kept a collection of Barbie dolls in my room, and I almost never spoke to boys.”

YearsStillsBookSchoolGirlParentRoomsBoysMysteryHorseCollectionsSpokesBiographiesNursingDollsNancyBarbieNightingalesFlorenceGirl ScoutBarbie DollsNursing SchoolNancy DrewFlorence NightingaleMadame Curie
Author:Joyce Maynard
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“When Whitney Houston died, I felt great sadness. My sadness, of course, was about our collective loss - when you listened to this nightingale sing, your body would drop into a chair, your head would tilt up, a small smile would creep across your face, and inside you knew that there was a higher power somewhere: gifted, beautiful, spiritual.”

BodyBeautifulFacesSpiritualCoursesFeltLossSadnessHigherDiedYour BodyChairsCollectivesYour FaceGiftedCreepsHoustonHigher PowerNightingalesTiltWhitney
Author:James Belushi
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“When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet: And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget. I shall not see the shadows, I shall not feel the rain; I shall not hear the nightingale Sing on as if in pain: And dreaming through the twilight That doth not rise nor set, Haply I may remember, And haply I may forget.”

IfsFeelsMayDreamPainRememberSongForgetTreeShadowRainGreenRosePlantGrassTwilightWetShowersShadyNightingalesSad SongGreen GrassDeath PoemsCypressesCypress Trees
Author:Christina Rossetti
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“Death is a great price to pay for a red rose“, cried the Nightingale, "and Life is very dear to all. “ It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent oft he hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?”

MenHeartLife IsLove IsPayWatchesSunSweetMoonBirdRedGoldGreenRoseDearBlowWoodsHillsPleasantValleysCriedScentPearlsNightingalesChariotsRed RoseHeathersBluebells
Book:Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
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“You have the most revolting Florence Nightingale complex,' said Mrs. Smiling. It is not that at all, and well you know it. On the whole, I dislike my fellow beings; I find them so difficult to understand. But I have a tidy mind and untidy lives irritate me. Also, they are uncivilized.”

KnowsMindWellsSaidWholeDifficultFellowsComplexesDislikeTidyNightingalesFlorenceUncivilizedCold Comfort FarmFlorence Nightingale
Book:Cold comfort farm
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“Ditty of First Desire In the green morning I wanted to be a heart. A heart. And in the ripe evening I wanted to be a nightingale. A nightingale. (Soul, turn orange-colored. Soul, turn the color of love.) In the vivid morning I wanted to be myself. A heart. And at the evening's end I wanted to be my voice. A nightingale. Soul, turn orange-colored. Soul, turn the color of love.”

FirstsHeartSoulEndsWantedDesireTurnsVoiceMorningColorGreenEveningOrangeVividRipeNightingales
Author:Federico Garcia Lorca
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“He stretched out his hands as he sang, sadly, because all beauty is sad…The poem had done no ‘good’ to anyone, but it was a passing reminder, a breath from the divine lips of beauty, a nightingale between two worlds of dust. Less explicit than the call to Krishna, it voiced our loneliness nevertheless, our isolation, our need for the Friend who never comes yet is not entirely disproved.”

WorldNeedsTwoDoneHandsLonelinessDivineBreathsLipsPassingPassingsDustIsolationNeverthelessRemindersKrishnaExplicitTwo WorldsNightingales
Author:E. M. Forster
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“In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms, I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart. Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art.”

MenWritingHeartArtStillsLightAgeLyingNightCommonGriefPaySecretStageArmsProudLoversMoonAmbitionPagesSingingPraiseTradeRoundsRageBreadCraftsCharmLabourWagesHeedPsalmsIvoryNightingalesSullenProud Man
Author:Dylan Thomas
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“WEATHERS This is the weather the cuckoo likes, And so do I; When showers betumble the chestnut spikes, And nestlings fly; And the little brown nightingale bills his best, And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,' And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest, And citizens dream of the south and west, And so do I. This is the weather the shepherd shuns, And so do I; When beeches drip in browns and duns, And thresh and ply; And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe, And meadow rivulets overflow, And drops on gate bars hang in a row, And rooks in families homeward go, And so do I.”

LittlesDreamCitizensBillsWestSouthBarsLikesWeatherHillsBrownGatesTidesShowersTravellerShepherdsMaidsMeadowsOverflowNightingalesCuckoosChestnutsPliesThresh
Author:Thomas Hardy
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“Formerly I believed books were made like this: a poet came, lightly opened his lips, and the inspired fool burst into song – if you please! But it seems, before they can launch a song, poets must tramp for days with callused feet, and the sluggish fish of the imagination flounders softly in the slush of the heart. And while, with twittering rhymes, they boil a broth of loves and nightingales, the tongueless street merely writhes for lack of something to shout or say”

IfsHeartMadeBookSeemsSongImaginationFeetStreetsPoetFoolPleaseInspiredLipsFishesRhymeNightingalesSluggishTrampsSlush
Author:Vladimir Mayakovsky
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“To die, is to be banish'd from myself; And Silvia is myself: banish'd from her, Is self from self: a deadly banishment! What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? Unless it be to think that she is by, And feed upon the shadow of perfection. Except I be by Silvia in the night, There is no music in the nightingale; Unless I look on Silvia in the day, There is no day for me to look upon; She is my essence, and I leave to be, If I be not by her fair influence Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive.”

IfsThinkingLooksSelfLightJoyNightDiesAliveInfluenceShadowFairsPerfectionEssenceCherishNightingalesBanishment
Author:William Shakespeare
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“When the rose is gone and the garden faded you will no longer hear the nightingale's song. The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil. The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing. If love withholds its strengthening care, the lover is left like a bird without care, the lover is left like a bird without wings. How will I be awake and aware if the light of the Beloved is absent? Love wills that this Word be brought forth.”

IfsLightCareSongLeftGoneLoversBirdGardenWingsRoseBelovedAwakeVeilsAbsentFadedStrengtheningNightingales
Book:The Pocket Rumi
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“Far away beyond the pine-woods,' he answered, in a low dreamy voice, 'there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, crystal moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads out its giant arms over the sleepers.”

LooksLittlesLongNightStarsGrowsVoiceWhiteTreeFlowerArmsColdMoonLowsGardenDown AndSpreadWoodsGrassGiantsFar AwayAll NightCrystalsDreamyNightingalesSleepersHemlockYew
Book:Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis
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“What's the biggest thing you've zapped with a fireball?' I asked. 'That would be a tiger,'said Nightingale. 'Well don't tell Greenpeace,' I said. 'They're an endagered species.' 'Not that sort of tiger,' said Nightingale. 'A Panzer-kampfwagen sechs Ausf E.' I stared at him. 'You knocked out a Tiger tank with a fireball?' 'Actually I knocked out two,' said Nightingale. 'I have to admit that the first one took three shots, one to disable the tracks, one through the driver's eye slot and one down the commander's hatch - brewed up rather nicely.”

FirstsWellsSaidTwoWould BeEyeThreeShotsSpeciesTrackDriversTigersTanksCommandersNightingalesGreenpeace
Author:Ben Aaronovitch
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“What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.”

IfsMenLongSongAsksOughtCreaturesWorshipPraiseRationalPostsDesertOld ManHymnsLameSwansNightingalesPraise God
Author:Epictetus
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