“An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.”

The Avignon Quintet (1974–1985), Monsieur (1974)
Context: The art of prose governed by syncopated thinking; for thoughts curdle in the heart if not expressed. An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left." by Lawrence Durrell?
Lawrence Durrell photo
Lawrence Durrell 52
British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer 1912–1990

Related quotes

Stevie Wonder photo

“Sometimes I think I would love to see … just to see the beauty of flowers and trees and birds and the earth and grass. … Being as I've never seen, I don't know what it's like to see. So in a sense I'm complete.”

Stevie Wonder (1950) American musician

As quoted in Stevie Wonder (1978) by Constanze Elsner, and Jet Vol. 53, No. 22 (16 February 1978), p. 60
1970s
Context: Sometimes I think I would love to see … just to see the beauty of flowers and trees and birds and the earth and grass. … Being as I've never seen, I don't know what it's like to see. So in a sense I'm complete. Maybe I'd be incomplete if I did see. Maybe I'd see some things that I didn't want to see... the beauty of the earth compared to the destruction of man. You see, it's one thing when you are blind from birth, and you don't know what it's like to see, anyway, so it is just like seeing. The sensation of seeing is not one that I have and not one that I worry about.

Cyril Connolly photo

“The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; — such is our personality.”

Part I: Ecce Gubernator (p. 20)
The Unquiet Grave (1944)
Context: A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; — such is our personality.

Ramakrishna photo

“One does not care for the cage when the bird has flown away from it. and when the bird of life flies away, no one cares for the body left behind.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960), p. 396

Kent Hovind photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Kid Cudi photo

“Birds seen flying around, you never see them too long on the ground, You want to be one of them…”

Kid Cudi (1984) American rapper, singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor from Ohio

-Mr. Rager
Music

G. K. Chesterton photo
Pablo Picasso photo
Ramakrishna photo

“This māyā, that is to say, the ego, is like a cloud. The sun cannot be seen on account of a thin patch of cloud; when that disappears one sees the sun.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 169
Context: This māyā, that is to say, the ego, is like a cloud. The sun cannot be seen on account of a thin patch of cloud; when that disappears one sees the sun. If by the grace of the guru one's ego vanishes, then one sees God.

Tacitus photo

“It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”
Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet.

Book I, 1
Histories (100-110)

Related topics