Quotes about chicken

A collection of quotes on the topic of chicken, likeness, people, eating.

Bob Dylan quote: “The sun's not yellow, it's chicken.”

Quotes about chicken

“Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth."”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

http://rocknrollworldmagazine.com/2015/08/82915-rock-history/

People, Dance

“The sun's not yellow, it's chicken.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Tombstone Blues
Variant: The sun's not yellow, its chicken!
Source: da Tombstone Blues, 1965

Sun

“Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.”

Terry Pratchett book Eric

Source: Eric

“I eat only white foods: eggs, sugar, grated bones, the fat of dead animals; veal, salt, coconut, chicken cooked in white water; fruit mold, rice, turnips; camphorated sausage, dough, cheese (white), cotton salad, and certain fish (skinless).”

Erik Satie (1866–1925) French composer and pianist

Quoted by Rollo H. Myers (1968). Erik Satie, p.135. New York: Dover.
See also Socrate for the context of this quote.
General quotes

Food, Fish, Water, Animals

“In contrast to the flux and muddle of life, art is clarity and enduring presence. In the stream of life, few things are perceived clearly because few things stay put. Every mood or emotion is mixed or diluted by contrary and extraneous elements. The clarity of art—the precise evocation of mood in the novel, or of summer twilight in a painting—is like waking to a bright landscape after a long fitful slumber, or the fragrance of chicken soup after a week of head cold.”

Yi-Fu Tuan (1930) Chinese-American geographer

Passing Strange and Wonderful: Aesthetics, Nature, and Culture, ch. 10 (1993).

Life, Art, Mood, Summer

“If God grant me life, I will see that every laboring man in my kingdom shall have his chicken to put in the pot.”

Henry IV of France (1553–1610) first French monarch of the House of Bourbon

Si Dieu me donne encore de la vie je ferai qu’il n’y aura point de laboureur en mon Royaume qui n’ait moyen d’avoir une poule dans son pot. As quoted by Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont in Histoire du roy Henry le Grand http://books.google.com/books?id=_Azvfrm9tcQC&q=%22Si+Dieu+me+donne+encore+de+la+vie+je%22+%22qu'il+n+y+aura%22+%22de+laboureur+en+mon+Royaume+qui+n'ait+moyen+d'auoir%22+%22poule+dans+son%22&pg=PA549#v=onepage (1661).

Life, God

“The chicken is only an egg’s way for making another egg.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Way

“There is plenty of Hühnerfleisch in the Kühlschrank. (There is plenty of chicken in the fridge.)”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

1991-08-27 at Bremen, Germany
Stage banter

“I am a vegetarian for health reasons—the health of the chicken.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author

Singer was very devoted to the vegetarian cause and was frequently quoted as saying this statement, as reported in Judaism and Vegetarianism by Richard H. Schwartz (New York: Lantern Books, 2001, ISBN 1-930051-24-7), p. 177 https://books.google.it/books?id=zo5TqKQVcEgC&pg=PA177

Health

“People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Letter from Paris (May 1900)

People

“The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken.”

Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

Source: The Problems of Philosophy

Life, Nature

“The first time I came here, I got the chance to meet some people, and they said, "You know what, Gabriel, have you ever been here, have you ever been to Chicago?" I'm like, "No, it's my first time." They said, "Well, you know, we'd like to take you out eat if you're down." And I'm like, "Well, hello!" [Audience laughs] "I'm very down!" They took me to a restaurant called Portillo's." [Audience cheers] You've heard of it? So, we get there, and it was, it was very, very good. The hot dogs were delicious, I had a chicken chopped salad, it was amazing. I had a beef dip, really really good. But it wasn't until the meal was almost over that these new friends of mine said, "We'd like for you to try something you've might not have ever had before." And I'm like, "That's not likely." I said, "So, what is it you want me to try?" And they said, "Well, they sell a thing here at Portillo's called a Chocolate Cake Shake." [Audience cheers] I said, "You had me at 'Chocolate'." They said, "Well, you gotta go to the special window and you gotta order it from the lady." I go, "Okay, cool." So, I get up and walk to the lady, and she's like, "Can I help you?" I said, "Yes, my friends are telling me that I need to try this thing, called a 'Chocolate Cake Shake'." "Okay, what size would you like?" "How good is it?" "You'll want a large." [Audience laughs] "Alright, can I please have a large Chocolate Cake Shake?" "No problem." [Imitates her entering the order in on the cash register] And I pay, and she turns around and walks over to this little refrigerator that's on the counter, and she opens it up, and she pulls out a piece of chocolate cake. And I'm thinking to myself, "She must have misunderstood what I said. I didn't ask for a piece of chocolate cake, I asked for a Chocolate Cake Shake." She must've heard what I was thinking, because she's walking by and she's like, "It's gonna happen." She walks over to the blender, she takes the freaking lid off, she just looks at me and does this. [Mimes the cashier turning her hand over, dropping the chocolate cake in the blender] And I was like, "NO!" And she's like, "Oh, yeah." [Mimes the lady pushing the button and the blender blending the cake] And she pours it, and she hands me this, like, 44-ounce chocolate shake, which is WAY more than anybody should be drinking. The straw was so thick, you could almost put your thumb in it, okay? So, I grab this shake, and I begin to attempt to drink it. So, I'm [Mimics him trying to suck the shake through the straw, making heavy "MMM" sounds], and I can see the shake coming up. [Still makes the "MMM" sounds, while using his finger to show how show the shake's coming up the straw] And it hit, and then, all of a sudden, [Mimics his nipples getting hard] "WOOOOO!"”

Gabriel Iglesias (1976) American actor

I'm Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry (2016)

People, Dogs, Way, Drink

“Welcome baby,
It's your turn to live,
They lie in wait for you, chicken pox, whooping cough, smallpox,
Malaria, TB, heart disease, cancer, and so on.
Unemployment, hunger, and so on.
Train wrecks, bus accidents, plane crashes, work accidents,
Earthquakes, floods, droughts, and so on.
Heartbreak, alcoholism, and so on.
Nightsticks, prison doors, and so on.
They lie in wait for you, the atom bomb, and so on.
Welcome baby,
It's your turn to live.
They lie in wait for you, socialism, communism, and so on.”

Nâzım Hikmet (1902–1963) Turkish poet

From Welcome (10 September 1961)

Hunger, Alcohol, Lie, Disease

“(On Ainsley Harriott) I must admit, I tend to think - with Ainsley - if you're that happy, you haven't really understood the world. You see, I think that cheeriness is all very well. Beyond a certain point it becomes quite offensive. And how many versions of what is, basically, your dinner can Ainsley do? There must be executives stalking the corridors of White City, thinking 'We need a new idea for Ainsley. He's so jolly. What can we have? We've had him doing Can't Cook, Won't Cook, Ready Steady Cook, Barbecues. We need something new, different, edgy. How about this? We like this. Ainsley's Death-Row Dinners.' Yes, the jolly chef tours the condemned man with a last supper to remember. We can have the recipes in the Radio Times - Ainsley's Humanely Fried Chicken, with a lethal injection of butter!”

Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian

guaranteed to make the governor say 'Pardon'. (Wrap Up Warm tour, May 2004)
Stand-up

Death, World, Idea, Thinking

“The rabbits bow before thee,
And cower in the straw;
The chickens are submissive,
And own thy will for law;
Bullfinches and canary
Thy bidding do obey;
And e'en the tortoise in its shell
Doth never say thee nay.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Lays of Sorrow No. 2
The Rectory Umbrella

Law

“[Aristotle] was the most eminent of all the pupils of Plato…. He seceded from Plato while he was still alive; so that they tell a story that [Plato] said, "Aristotle has kicked us off, just as chickens do their mother after they have been hatched."”

Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher

’’The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers’’, Book V, "Life of Aristotle" http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlaristotle.htm paragraphs II and IV, as translated by C. D. Yonge In Diogenes Laërtius

“For a chicken the most beautiful is chicken.”

Jacek Tylicki (1951) American artist

Commentary on the 1987 project entitled "Chicken & Art", cited in: Leszek Brogowski. "Jacek Tylicki and the new ethos of Art," in Projekt Visual Art Magazine, nr. 202-203, 1995

Beauty

“(On the idea of being offended): “The majority of people are very reasonable I’ve found, but ya know what, they don’t write letters when something offends them on TV, because reasonable people know IT’S JUST FUCKIN’ TELEVISION! Not only that, reasonable people have a life! They’re not sittin’ in some trailer with some fuckin’ crayon in their hand, some chicken scrawl goin’ ‘I saw a guy talk about Jesus on the tube! I ain’t gone tune in no more!’And also reasonable people know ultimately they’re just fuckin’ jokes! Are you so afraid of a guy tellin’ jokes!””

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Relentless (1992)

Life, People, Guy, Idea

“President Kennedy never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon. Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

On the assassination of John F. Kennedy, quoted in New York Times (2 December 1963) "Malcolm X Scores U.S. and Kennedy" http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0812FE35541A7B93C0A91789D95F478685F9. p. 21.

Sadness, Home, Boy

“The plan of "counting the chickens before they are hatched" is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age.”

P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman

Ch. 10: "Let hope predominate but be not too visionary" http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneygetting/moneygetting_chap11.html Art of Money Getting (1880)

Age, Error

“One day, I just thought, if you see a bird with a broken leg, you really have the urge to do something about it and help the bird. … Then, at the same time, you go to a restaurant and eat a chicken or something. It doesn’t make any sense. … I just realized that if it’s really compassion that drives you, maybe it’s not enough just to stop eating animals but you maybe should boycott the whole animal industry, because … it’s not what you as a compassionate being would want. So actually you should go one step further and become vegan.”

Patrik Baboumian (1979) German strength-athlete

“Vegan strongman shoulders 550 kg — a record, perhaps — at vegetarian food fest,” interview with Toronto Star (8 September 2013) https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/08/vegan_strongman_shoulders_550_kg_a_record_perhaps_at_vegetarian_food_fest.html.

Bird, Sense, Time, Help

“I'm too drunk to taste this chicken”

Harland Sanders (1890–1980) American entrepreneur and businessman

Funny

“How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?”

Jerome David Salinger book Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey (1961), Zooey (1957)
Context: Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master — some guru, some holy man — to tell you how to say your Jesus Prayer properly, what good would it do you? How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose? Can you tell me that?

Hell

“And chicken soup is widely known to be good for life.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
Context: The amount of organic matter that could have been produced in the first few hundred million years of Earth history was sufficient to have produced in the present ocean a several-percent solution of organic matter. This is just about the dilution of Knorr's chicken soup, and not that different from the composition either. And chicken soup is widely known to be good for life.

Life

“I would not be very much surprised if some writers or actors or stagehands, or what not, were found to have Communist leanings, but I was surprised to find that, at the start of the inquiry, some of the big producers were so chicken-hearted about speaking up for the freedom of their industry.
One thing is sure — none of the arts flourishes on censorship and repression. And by this time it should be evident that the American public is capable of doing its own censoring.”

Eleanor Roosevelt My Day

My Day (1935–1962)
Context: I have waited a while before saying anything about the Un-American Activities Committee's current investigation of the Hollywood film industry. I would not be very much surprised if some writers or actors or stagehands, or what not, were found to have Communist leanings, but I was surprised to find that, at the start of the inquiry, some of the big producers were so chicken-hearted about speaking up for the freedom of their industry.
One thing is sure — none of the arts flourishes on censorship and repression. And by this time it should be evident that the American public is capable of doing its own censoring. Certainly, the Thomas Committee is growing more ludicrous daily. (29 October 1947)

Art, Freedom, Time, Heart

“I truly miss my youth but embrace the more mature man I've become. Living in Palm Springs, I am a spring chicken! So it's all relative.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Spring, Youth

“Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

History

“One the next corner stood a cinder block restaurant with a hand-painted sign that read CHICKEN & WAFFLES. There was a queue of twenty people outside.
“You Americans have the strangest taste. What planet is this?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

People, Reading, Painting

“so much depends
upon a red wheel
barrow glazed with rain
water beside the white
chickens”

William Carlos Williams book Spring and All

"The Red Wheelbarrow"
Source: Spring and All (1923)

Water, Dependency

“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“It's not about having things figured out, or about communicating with other people, trying to make them understand what you understand. It's about a chicken dinner at a drive-in. A soft pillow. Things that don't need explaining.”

Ann Beattie (1947) Short story writer, novelist, professor

Source: Walks with Men

People, Communication, Understanding

“Apparently, word of the chicken man incident hadn’t spread quite yet.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“call it chicken salad”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Variant: Call it crazy, or just chicken salad.
Source: Along for the Ride

“There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Time

“First, you start carrying a man satchel. Next thing you know, you're running around in a bathrobe and pink bunny slippers, chasing chickens with a weed whacker.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“Chickens can do many things, but they cannot make sophisticated deals with humans.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

“Enjoy your Evening."

"That will depend on the menu. If it's beef, it will be a tolerable meal. If it's chicken…" Elliot shuddered. "What is the point of chicken?"

"Eggs?”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

Dependency

“The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Source: Shades of Grey

“When I was six I had a chicken that walked backward and was in the Pathe News. I was in it too with the chicken. I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been anticlimax.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Life

“Erotica is using a feather; pornograpy is using the whole chicken.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

“I wondered about her chicken-and-egg relationship with Dad. Which came first? Her helplessness or his controlling?”

Justina Chen (1968) American writer

Source: North of Beautiful

“You know how hard it is to feel like an extreme falcon-headed combat machine when somebody calls you "chicken man"?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Feeling

“Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.”

Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director

Stupidity, World

“God, it was hot! Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk; this kind of heat would fry an egg inside the chicken.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

God, Forgetting

“My face felt like my normal face, as if that part of me hadn’t transformed into a bird. [Fine, Sadie. Call me the Carter-headed chicken. Happy? ]”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Bird, Parting, Happiness

“Am I tough? Am I strong? Am I hard-core? Absolutely.
Did I whimper with pathetic delight when I sank my teeth into my hot fried-chicken sandwich? You betcha.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Strong

“Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice.”

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books

Source: Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months

“… and with my last thought I felt some real sympathy for those poor chickens.”

Shannon Hale book Book of a Thousand Days

Source: Book of a Thousand Days

“Everything I needed was in my car, even the chickens”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Guilty Pleasures

Source: Guilty Pleasures

Cars

“Not everything made you stronger. It was possible to survive, yet still be crippled for your trouble. Sometimes it was okay to run away, to skip the test, to chicken out. Or at least to get some help.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Help

“He was transfixed at the sight of the lords and ladies of his realm running about like demented chickens.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Amulet of Samarkand

Source: The Amulet of Samarkand

“How, unless you drink as I do, could you hope to understand the beauty of an old Indian woman playing dominoes with a chicken?”

Malcolm Lowry book Under the Volcano

Source: Under the Volcano

Beauty, Hope, Drink, Understanding

“Do you eat chicken because you are familiar with the scientific literature on them and have decided that their suffering doesn't matter, or do you do it because it tastes good?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

Literature, Suffering

“I love sushi, I love fried chicken, I love steak. But there is a limit to my love”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

Love

“The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan.”

Mary Roach book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

“Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it's tuna, but it… it says "Chicken… by the Sea."”

Jessica Simpson (1980) American singer-songwriter and actress

While eating "Chicken of the Sea" canned tuna
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, "Newlyweds Clean House" [1.01], 19 August 2003

Fish, Sea

“Charlie Asher: Mrs. Ling, is that duck wearing trousers?
Mrs. Ling: Could be…. You hear of paper-wrap chicken? This duck in pants.”

Christopher Moore book A Dirty Job

Source: A Dirty Job

“You can't get a suit of armour and a rubber chicken just like that. You have to plan ahead.”

Michael Palin (1943) British comedian, actor, writer and television presenter

“Feeling better?” he asked.
“As warm as chicken-apple soup.”
“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Nightfall

Feeling

“I get tired of hearing it's a crummy world and that people are no damned good. What kind of talk is that? I know a place in Payette, Idaho, where a cook and a waitress and a manager put everything they've got into laying a chicken-fried steak on you.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

People, World, Cooking

“Love is dope, not chicken soup.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976)

Love

“Man, they got mosquitoes 'round this place big enough to rape a chicken.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“I do have some leftover chicken and pasta. (Grace)
And wine?… That’s acceptable (Julian)
Look, buster, I’m not your cooking wench. Mess with me and I’ll feed you Alpo. (Grace)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Wine, Cooking

“After my bad experience as a kite, I simply refused to go about as a glowing Sadie-headed chicken. That’s fine for Carter, but I have standards.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale---and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Nature, Happiness

“Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak.”

Larry McMurtry (1936) American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter

Source: In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas

“Forget the chicken-nugget smoke screen. Percy wanted Leo to invent an anti-dream hat.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Dreams, Forgetting

“Secret to what?"
"Secret to shutting you up," he said. "I just have to beat you till you're half-dead, then give you chicken soup and"--he raised his hands--"blessed silence.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Secret, Silence, Dead

“I don't eat chicken abortions!”

Cecily von Ziegesar Gossip Girl

Source: Gossip Girl

“Was it like this? (Jesse)
(Jesse made an inhuman ghost noise.)
That sounds like Darth Vader choking on a chicken bone. (Gloria)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

“You know how chickens are, imagining the world coming to an end one moment, then pecking corn the next.”

Lloyd Alexander book The Book of Three

Source: The Book of Three

World, Imagination

“And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

God

“But this was no ordinary chicken. This chicken was evil manifest.”

Terry Goodkind book Soul of the Fire

Source: Soul of the Fire

Evil

“Yeah, but I don’t want to be in pain, and I definitely don’t want to suffer.” – Nick
“Well…The only way to avoid them is to die.” – Death
“Okay, let’s change the topic now. Oh, look! A chicken.” – Nick”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Pain, Way, Suffering

“Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: “We don’t serve colored people here.” I said: “That’s all right, I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.””

Dick Gregory (1932–2017) American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur

Nigger: An Autobiography (1964)

People, Color, Time

“I keep asking myself," whispered Sabetha, giving Locke's arm a squeeze, "ARE we smarter than that woman's chicken?"

"At the moment, it's an open question," said Locke.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

Question

“Come on, it’s an American tradition. Apple soup? Mom’s homemade chicken pie?'
She chuckled in spite of herself, then winced. 'It’s apple pie and Mom’s homemade chicken soup. But you didn’t do badly, for a start.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Nightfall

Moms

“The Westboro Baptist Church is no more a church than Church's Fried Chicken is a church.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

“I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Dreams, Motivation, Question, Funny

“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!”

Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist

Source: The Accidental Tourist

Thinking

“I found that things weren't going well upstairs.
Carter was a crumpled heap of chicken warrior on the slope of the pyramid.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“When chickens get to live like chickens, they'll taste like chickens, too.”

Michael Pollan book The Omnivore's Dilemma

Source: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

“How come when it’s us, it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken, it’s an omelette?”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

"Abortion"
Back in Town (1996)
Context: Here's another question I have. How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelet? Are we so much better than chickens all of a sudden? When did this happen; that we passed chickens in goodness? Name six ways we're better than chickens... See, nobody can do it! You know why? 'Cause chickens are decent people. You don't see chickens hanging around in drug gangs, do you? No. You don't see a chicken strapping some guy to a chair and hooking up his nuts to a car battery, do you? When's the last chicken you heard about came home from work and beat the shit out of his hen, huh? Doesn't happen... 'cause chickens are decent people.

“Damn chicken. Come eat your dinner. I'm cold.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“If they invent a four legged chicken," Will said, "Horace will think he's gone to Heaven.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Erak's Ransom

Thinking

“Oh, gross! Zombie goo. (Caleb)
Ooo, I wonder if it tastes like chicken? What do you think? (Simi)
I think I’m never eating guacamole again as long as I live. (Caleb)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Thinking

“When in doubt chicken out.”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Christy Miller Collection, Vol. 2

“Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

People, Truth, Heart

“The most malicious god is the god of the counted chicken.”

David Mitchell book Ghostwritten

"Clear Island"
Ghostwritten (1999)

God

“I have looked attentively at chickens raised in this [battery] fashion, and to me they seem to be unhappy and in poor health. Their combs are dull and lifeless except for glaring and unnatural patches of color that appear occasionally … The battery chickens I have observed seem to lose their minds about the time they would normally be weaned by their mothers and off in the weeds chasing grasshoppers on their own account. Yes, literally, actually, the battery becomes a gallinaceous madhouse. The eyes of these chickens through the bars gleam like those of maniacs. Let your hand get within reach and it receives a dozen vicious peeks—not the love peck or the tentative peek of idle curiosity bestowed by the normal chicken, but a peck that means business, a peck for flesh and blood, for which in their madness they are thirsting.”

Roy Bedichek (1878–1959) American writer and naturalist

Adventures with a Texas Naturalist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. Orig. pub. 1947), pp. 101 https://books.google.it/books?id=4WuzlD0hkSgC&pg=PA101-102.

Love, Health, Color, Fashion

“The carnistic schema, which twists information so that nonsense seems to make perfect sense, also explains why we fail to see the absurdities of the system. Consider, for instance, advertising campaigns in which a pig dances joyfully over the fire pit where he or she is to be barbecued, or chickens wear aprons while beseeching the viewer to eat them. And consider the Veterinarian's Oath of the American Veterinary Medical Association, “I solemnly swear to use my … skills for the … relief of animal suffering,” in light of the fact that the vast majority of veterinarians eat animals simply because they like the way meat tastes. Or think about how people won't replace their hamburgers with veggie burgers, even if the flavor is identical, because they claim that, if they try hard enough, they can detect a subtle difference in texture. Only when we deconstruct the carnistic schema can we see the absurdity of placing our preference for a flawless re-creation of a textural norm over the lives and deaths of billions of others.”

Melanie Joy book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows

Source: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2010), p. 133

Death, People, Way, Thinking

“I’m a huge lover of animals. My mother wasn’t the best, but despite an abusive childhood, we always had a lot of pets growing up. I was basically raised on a farm with horses, chickens, ducks and cats. We did a lot of rescuing. At early age, I became a vegetarian. There was a lot of resistance from family — “It will stunt your growth. It can’t be healthy.””

Corey Feldman (1971) American actor

… Going vegetarian at such a young age, it was a stance for myself. "Corey Feldman brings Lost Boys Ball, Truth Movement to House of Blues" https://lasvegasweekly.com/blogs/luxe-life/2010/oct/21/corey-feldman-brings-lost-boys-ball-truth-movement/, interview with the Las Vegas Weekly (October 21, 2010).

Age, Family, Cats, Lovers

“Chicken-neck weakness is like a god now. And being totally passive, and being a huge jellyfish slacker who looks like a fried egg in a chair. That is the culture of this, okay? The worship of being destroyed. Literally, I've now discovered the secrets of it. … And everyone's wearing like pink and little green non-threatening, you know, colors, and this is what we face. This is what men look like now, on average. In fact, I used to bash men who were all into being big and muscular with tattoos and black on and going "raagh", now I get it! You don't wanna be like these people! Okay? I used to get mad at guys trying to act tough—no, no! That's good! Do that! In fact, I think I'm gonna just go all out with cut-off sleeves and drive a big fast car and be like "graagh", 'cause I mean I'm starting to get it! Men are running to that, because they see the armies… literally men in pastels… Now there's men everywhere wearing dresses, I'm telling you! It's like, they're just like "New World Order, slaughter me, please!"”

Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker

And the New World Order is like "Act like a jellyfish coward and giggle at all reality", and they're like "Yes, yes!" "Alex Jones: I'm So Trendy Rant!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBA-sa97UYg March 2012. 2012

Men, God, People, Secret

“It was indeed a dead grove, made up of the corpses of trees. Even the wood of these corpses was non-living, a deathly grey, silver-green, with peeling bark; and the bark had also flaked, shrivelling and simply sloughing off like dead skin. And arching along all the dead twigs, crawled a supple, clutching, lashing, bold convolvulus-serpent. It was her leaves which glowed a cheerful green on the dead branches, on all their agonizing bifurcations; it was her flowers which hung on the branches from clusters of tiny suckers and tentacles, astonishingly tender and serene. They were so alien to that austere and honest deathly sterility that they seemed almost dazzling. It was like an explosion of something splendid, like the sombre and magical secret of that dead river and its dry valley. There was something about that copse reminiscent of the hut on chickens' legs, or Koschei's hoard, or the field sown with dead men's bones.”

Yury Dombrovsky book The Faculty of Useless Knowledge

tr. Alan Myers, The Harvill Press, 1996, Part 1, Chapter 2, pp. 100-101 cited and discussed in Peter Doyle, Iurii Dombrovskii: Freedom Under Totalitarianism, Routledge, 2000, p. 145 https://books.google.com/books?id=MoLCsjaQT08C&lpg=PA145&ots=ekC9_khOAS&dq=%22It%20really%20was%20a%20dead%20grove%22&pg=PA145#v=onepage&q=%22It%20really%20was%20a%20dead%20grove%22&f=false The Faculty of Useless Knowledge (1975)

Men, Secret, Flowers, Tree

“Only a few of us had been able to face directly the obscene conditions we inflicted on animals in our farm factories and modern slaughter houses; but most of us knew on some level that they entailed a suffering that was too much to “stomach.” We can appreciate now what it did to us to eat animals kept long in pain and terror. Because the mass methods employed to raise and kill animals for our tables were relatively new, we did not fully realize the deprivation and torture they entailed. Only a few of us guessed that the glandular responses of the cattle and pigs and chickens pumped adrenalin into their bodies and that we ate with their flesh the rage of the chickens, the terror of the pigs and cattle… Acting now with more respect for other beings, we find we have more respect for ourselves.”

Joanna Macy (1929) American activist

Foreword https://books.google.it/books?id=h-9ARz2YAlgC&pg=PT5 to Diet for a New America by John Robbins (H J Kramer, 2011)

Pain, Suffering, Rage, Animals

“The less a writer discusses his work—and himself—the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Afterword to "The Bagful of Dreams" in The Jack Vance Treasury (2007). First appeared in Epoch (1775), ed. Robert Silverberg and Roger Elwood.

“We must at last put a stop to having people move into their quarters like chickens and rabbits into their coops.”

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000) Austrian artist

Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture (1958)

People

“Radically simplify the user interface, reinvent it, enough face lifts! You can put as much lipstick on a chicken as you want, it's never going to look good!”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

On stage to Bill Gates at a PC Forum.

“War! Huh? What is it good for? Well, for start? It sorts out who is the strongest out of the two countries. Also, you get to see some amazing explosions. But, there is some people out there who not only don't enjoy the war, but they try to spoil the fun for everyone else. And those chickens is called the 'U. N.”

Sacha Baron Cohen (1971) English stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and voice actor

Me went to New York to meet these player-haters. As quoted in "War" http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=aV3ncKB8a4s (28 February 2003), Da Ali G Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508528/?ref_=ttep_ep2.

War, People, Country

“No one would listen to me when I tried to protest that foxhunting was cruel. And as a young boy it was hard to argue with my elders about being disrespectful, but it seemed to me that if you didn't want foxes to get into your henhouse, then you needed to build an enclosure that was foxproof. It seemed totally unjust to set foxhounds to kill foxes because human beings were too lazy to take proper care of their chickens. Whenever I tried to speak to anyone about it, I was told to mind my manners, what did I know? I was just a child. It was years before I was vindicated and foxhunting was banned in England and Wales. During the debate that raged beforehand, I was involved in researching the effect hunting had on the fox. The prohunting lobby said that they only caught old and sick animals, but that was simply not true. I examined foxes that had been caught and among them were carcasses of eighteen-month-old foxes - animals in the prime of life - too young to know how to save themselves. Another myth was that the lead dog brought down the fox and it was all over in seconds with a single bite. The truth was they ran the fox to exhaustion until its brain boiled and swelled, its lungs bled, and the fox drowned in its own blood. They were often dead before the hounds even touched them. It was the most horrific death.”

Shaun Ellis (1977) American football player, defensive end

The Man who lives with Wolves (2010)

Life, Death, Truth, Dogs