Quotes on Caged Birds

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

I know why the caged bird sings.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams.

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

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaking need for an unshakable God. My pretty Black brother was my Kingdom Come.

The world had taken a deep breath and was having doubts about continuing to revolve.

Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.

Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time for bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage.