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Pigeons Quotes

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Pigeons Quotes

“Imagine being blindfolded and then taken hundreds of miles from home -- perhaps even to another country across the sea. And then suddenly having the blindfold removed and, despite not having the slightest idea where you are, racing home at top speed. Even if home is six hundred miles away. That is not normal. Just like the superpowers of comicbook heroes, the homing instinct of pigeons is something that scientists cannot explain. They have tried over the years, with theories about magnetic fields and the sun, but no one has satisfactorily managed it. It is a strangely comfy superpower though. The pigeon is not on a mission to save the world. It just wants to go home. From the age of six weeks, pigeons can be taught to "home" to the loft from which they make their first flight because they understand that is where they will find food, water and company. Pigeons can be picky in their journey -- they do not like to fly at night or to cross water, often flying along the coast to find the shortest point at which to cross a body like the English Channel. but they are ultimately single-minded in simply wanting to get back to where they belong. Amid the horrors of wartime, this longing has a particular resonance.”

WarHomePigeonsSuperpowersHomingEnglish Channel
Book:Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe
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“While many find the new clothes of the emperor magnificent, some dare to say out loud, he is simply naked. If the clear sighted are constrained by the credulous and when the “followers” are browbeating the "knowers", the cat is among the pigeons and the age of obscuration is under way. Obviously "something wicked this way comes…" ("His master's voice" )”

WayAgeCatDareNakedWickedFollowersMagnificentEmperorPigeonsNew ClothesObscurantismObviouslyConstrainedKnowerCredulousBe Under WayBrowbeatingClear SightedSay Out Loud
Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“On city harp strings ‘neath cotton ball clouds, Pigeon to pigeon their stories they sing, Wafting flocks gather in soft, cooing crowds; Amid rush traffic, a prelude to spring, One with their nature, harmony within, Above street clatter, perched, resting their bones, Primed for the vernal bounty to begin, Soothing the clamor with light, dulcet tones; Whiffs of smog-filled drafts like bellows pulse through, Unfazed are they by our mad world of haste, The calm bevy awaits winter’s adieu, Unconsumed by thoughts of no time to waste, Nature presides with unshakable pride, The seasons shall turn with a feather’s glide.”

InspirationalMotivationalNaturePoemTrafficFeathersSonnetBirdsPigeonsCity Life
Author:Marie Helen Abramyan
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“And London shops on Christmas Eve Are strung with silver bells and flowers As hurrying clerks the City leave To pigeon-haunted classic towers, And marbled clouds go scudding by The many-steepled London sky”

CitiesSkyFlowerCloudsLondonClassicShopsSilverBellsTowersPigeonsClerksHurryingChristmas EveSilver Bells
Book:Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of Betjeman's Religious Verse
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“Poorpeoplestaying intheir houses aslong astill thevery fire touched them, and then running into boats or clambering from one pair of stair by the waterside to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons I perceive were loath to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies till they were some of them burned, their wings, and fell down.”

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Author:Samuel Pepys
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“When you're starting out as an actor people are very interested in who you are because they want to know where they can put you. And quite often, and we're all guilty of this is our lives, we judge very quickly and we pigeon-hole people very quickly based on how they look and how they talk and how they dress and we think: "Oh yeah, we know who you are."”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWantLooksActorsOur LivesJudgingDressesYeahWho You AreStartingHolesGuiltyPigeonsStarting Out
Author:Tom Hiddleston
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“At Car and Driver, we were convinced that the automobile, as we knew and loved it, was as dead as the passenger pigeon. Ralph Nader was at full cry, ringing his tocsin of automobile doom into the brains of the public, convincing them that the lump of chrome and iron in the driveway was as lethal as a dose of Strontium 90 or a blast from a Viet Cong AK-47.”

BrainCarCryConvincedIronDriversConvincingDoomAutomobileBlastPassengersDoseLumpsPigeonsDrivewayChromeAk 47Viet Cong
Author:Brock Yates
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“Venice is ever the fragile labyrinth at the edge of the sea and it reminds us how brief and perilous the journeys of our lives are; perhaps that is why we love it so. City of plagues and brief liaisons, city of lingering deaths and incendiary loves, city of chimeras, nightmares, pigeons, bells. You are the only city in the world whose dialect has a word for the shimmer of canal water reflected on the ceiling of a room.”

WorldWaterRoomsCitiesOur LivesJourneySeaEdgesNightmareFragileBellsPlagueCeilingsVeniceLabyrinthPigeonsLingeringDialectCanalsCities In The WorldShimmerChimeraLiaison
Author:Erica Jong
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“[Elephants] are less agile and physically less adaptable than ourselves - Nature having developed their bodies in one direction and their brains in another, while human beings, on the other hand, drew from Mr. Darwin's lottery of evolution both the winning ticket and the stub to match it. This, I suppose, is why we are so wonderful and can make movies and electric razors and wireless sets - and guns with which to shoot the elephant, the hare, clay pigeons, and each other.”

HumansBodyHandsWinningHuman BeingsBrainWonderfulEvolutionGunElectricTicketsElephantsClayLotteryRazorsOne DirectionPigeonsWirelessHaresAdaptable
Author:Beryl Markham
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“If you're not careful people will judge you based on these appearances and they will pigeon hole you that this is the person that you are. Your shy, your aggressive, your this type or that type and you lose the control of the dynamic, they become the ones that determine who you are. A powerful person never loses control of the dynamic they are in someway in control.”

PeopleIfsPersonsLosesPowerfulJudgingTypeWho You AreDetermineCarefulAppearanceHolesShyAggressivePigeonsPowerful Person
Author:Robert Greene
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“There arent many great passages written about food, but I love one by George Millar, who worked for the SOE in the second world war and wrote a book called Horned Pigeon. He had been on the run and hadnt eaten for a week, and his description of the cheese fondue he smells in the peasant kitchen of a house in eastern France is unbelievable.”

WorldBookWarRunningHouseWrittenWeekSmellFranceWar Of The WorldsKitchenDescriptionPassagesCheeseUnbelievableEasternPeasantsSecond World WarPigeonsFondue
Author:Sebastian Faulks
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