Falconer Quotes & Sayings

A man would rather break his donkeys back than give it the carrot it requires to progress. — R.P. Falconer

Do you understand what's going on here?"
Hodgesaargh took another slow look at the scene. "No," he said.
"In that case's not my job to understand this sort of thing," said the falconer. "I wasn't trained. Probably takes a lot of training, understanding this. That's your job. And her job. Can you understand what's going on when a bird's been trained and'll make a kill and still came back to the wrist?"
"Well, no - "
"There you are, then. So that's all right. Cup of tea, was it? — Terry Pratchett

I've changed my mind. Stop inadequately playing human," I say. "Drop her hand and step away. Take a very big step. — Elizabeth May

The fleet being thus more inclosed will more readily observe the signals, and with greater facility form itself into the line of battle a circumstance which should be kept in view in every order of sailing. — William Falconer

You can't forge a relationship with learned helplessness, you can only force one and it will always be tenuous. There is always the possibility the peregrine will rediscover the strength of his heart. — Rebecca K. O'Connor

The sacred lamp of day Now dipt in Western clouds his parting day. — William Falconer

The head of a ship however has not always an immediate relation to her name, at least in the British navy. — William Falconer

While vast continents are shrouded in darkness ... the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field. — Ion Keith-Falconer

Being a Falconer is about saving the buggers even if they don't deserve it." - Farlan MacNeil — Edwin McRae

Only five books tonight, Mommy," she says.
No, Olivia, just one."
How about four?"
Two."
Three."
Oh, all right, three. But that's it! — Ian Falconer

A corpse was merely an empty vessel for the spirit it had housed. "The soul," he'd said one night by a campfire in the Valley of the Kings, "is like a falcon. Despite its loyalty to the falconer, it longs to fly free. When my time comes, let my soul soar into the wind and the sky. Wherever its natural home is meant to be, that's where it will go. — Robert Masello

The anchors now made are contrived so as to sink into the ground as soon as they reach it, and to hold a great strain before they can be loosened or dislodged from their station. — William Falconer

Playboy offered me a lot to do their mag but I'm not even the sort to go topless on the beach. — Jenni Falconer

Wherever he looked, he saw people who demanded to be heard but had nothing to say. — Craig A. Falconer

Father's Day is like Mother's Day except the gift is cheaper. — Colin Falconer

Well, perhaps Falconer will be able to figure it out; he's usually a good judge of character. I say the sooner we reach the Heartland the better. I, for one, am eager to rid him of our 'boring' company — Nicole Sager

My dad wrote to me. My mum put him up to it because she got this great idea that hearing from someone I'd never met and who didn't give a fuck about me might cheer me up... — Helen Falconer

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
The Second Coming — Wb Yeats

The daughter of a marquess does not charge out of a ballroom. The daughter of a marquess does not abandon her partner in the middle of a dance.
The daughter of a marquess does not hunt faeries.
- The Falconer — Elizabeth May

War is like any other bad relationship. Of course you want out, but at what price? And perhaps more importantly, once you get out, will you be any better off?
- Quellcrist Falconer — Richard K. Morgan

If things went my way, I would be working at a renaissance fair as a falconer. I wouldn't have to worry about climbing career ladders or getting promotions, because falconry's not like that. Either you're a falconer or you're not. Either the birds come back to you or they fly away. My father waited — Carol Rifka Brunt

The effect of sailing is produced by a judicious arrangement of the sails to the direction of the wind. — William Falconer

In the time of battle the hammocs, together with their bedding, are all firmly corded, and fixed in the nettings on the quarter-deck, or whereever the men are too much exposed to the view or fire of the enemy. — William Falconer

Falconer was wearing his street clothes - jeans, a black turtleneck and an empty shoulder holster under his armpit. Cowboy boots. Little bit of beard stubble. John wondered if the guy would walk from one end of the street to the other without winding up covered in bitches. — David Wong

Nor is it the least advantage to health, accruing from such a way of life, that it expose those who follow it to fewer temptations to vice, than persons who live in crowded society. — William Falconer

The simplicity and uniformity of rural occupations, and their incessant practice, preclude any anxieties and agitations of hope and fear, to which employments of a more precarious and casual nature are subject. — William Falconer

Either you're a falconer or you're not. Either the birds come back to you or they fly away. — Carol Rifka Brunt

I have chosen a life that depends on one's awareness that every breath may be his last, every step may bring his downfall, and every word may stir betrayal. In truth, I must live in conscious ignorance of the mere thread that holds my life aloft, trusting that God alone has the power to sever it, and that He will do so only when my work on earth is complete. — Nicole Sager

The falcon cannot hear the falconer — William Butler Yeats

The regular hours necessary to be observed by those who follow country business, are perhaps of more consequence than any of the other articles, however important those may be. — William Falconer

Blunt turned to the man in question with a helpless grin, "You have always proven yourself a mystery to me, good fellow!"
Falconer lifted one corner of his mouth, "Then I have succeeded, Blunt. — Nicole Sager

Some men would rather break their donkeys back, than give them the carrot they both require to progress. — R.P. Falconer

They say women can fake an orgasm, but men can fake a whole relationship. — Colin Falconer

You know who else thought lightly of them, once? The Falconer. — Scott Lynch

searching the sky from high above to below the horizon, gradually working around until he reached the right and the rear. — Jonathan Falconer

Derrick... Have you ever heard of a Falconer?"
...
"Wherever did you hear that? — Elizabeth May

[W]hen you find yourself face to face with one [Bondsmage], you bow and scrape and mind your 'sirs' and 'madams.'
...
'Nice bird, asshole,' said Locke. — Scott Lynch

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light. — Ion Keith-Falconer

Mental agitations and eating cares are more injurious to health, and destructive of life, than is commonly imagined, and could their effects be collected, would make no inconsiderable figure in the bills of mortality. — William Falconer

The fundamental problem with golf is that every so often, no matter how lacking you may be in the essential virtues required of a steady player, the odds are that one day you will hit the ball straight, hard, and out of sight. This is the essential frustration of this excruciating sport. For when you've done it once, you make the fundamental error of asking yourself why you can't do this all the time. The answer to this question is simple: the first time was a fluke. — Colin Falconer

Nine years ago, my sister handed me a paperback she had picked up in an airport shop on her way to India. It was a gloomy-looking book, with a black an white photo of a steam train approaching through fog on the cover. Cutting across the top of the photo was . . . an author's name I did not know: J.K. Rowling. I began to read the novel and by page three, I was hooked. — Rachel Falconer

Evelyn's New Age daughter will discover that a good shag beats hugging a guru any day.
- Helen Falconer, book reviewer for The Guardian — Deborah Moggach

Trained hawks have a peculiar ability to conjure history because they are in a sense immortal. While individual hawks of different species die, the species themselves remain unchanged. There are no breed or varieties, because hawks were never domesticated. The birds we fly today are identical to those of five thousand years ago. Civilisations rise and fall, but hawks stay the same. This gives falconry birds the ability to feel like relics from the distant past. You take a hawk onto your fist. You imagine the falconer of the past doing the same. It is hard not to feel it is the same hawk. — Helen Macdonald

LIBERAL, n. A man with his mind open at both ends. — Colin Falconer

steward, bailiff, falconer, houndmaster — Bernard Knight

It seems love is the root of all pain and most of its fruit only leaves a bitter taste behind. — L.F. Falconer

Freedom from care and anxiety of mind is a blessing, which I apprehend such people enjoy in higher perfection than most others, and is of the utmost consequence. — William Falconer

Mother was a falconer. The one who stood on the hills and watched, trying to stave off whatever ill she perceived was coming to her children. She owned copies of our minds in the pockets of her own mind and so could easily sniff troubles early in their forming, the same way sailors discern the forming foetus of a coming storm. — Chigozie Obioma

The accumulation of numbers always augments in some measure moral corruptions, and the consequences to health of the various vices incident thereto, are well known. — William Falconer

Charlie Studd has written me a delightful letter ... He thinks the Chinese language was invented by the devil to prevent the Chinese from ever hearing the Gospel properly. — Ion Keith-Falconer

Something at the back of his mind whispered that this assignment would be like nothing he had encountered before. — Nicole Sager

The fishes are also employed for the same purpose on any yard, which happens to be sprung or fractured. Thus their form, application, and utility are exactly like those of the splinters applied to a broken limb in surgery. — William Falconer

If consciousness is currency, I've got me a goldmine! — Kim Falconer

Men of vision caught glimpses of truth and beauty shining aloft like stars: and in these glimpses was a new hope for the unification of mankind through enlightenment. — Robert Falconer

A long sea implies an uniform and steady motion of long and extensive waves; on the contrary, a short sea is when they run irregularly, broken, and interrupted; so as frequently to burst over a vessel's side or quarter. — William Falconer

Hence a ship is said to head the sea, when her course is opposed to the setting or direction of the surges. — William Falconer

In a case such as this, unless an entire army is available, the safest number of men will be one. We have no army, and therefore I will go. — Nicole Sager

Hence a ship is said to be tight, when her planks are so compact and solid as to prevent the entrance of the water in which she is immersed: and a cask is called tight, when the staves are so close that none of the liquid contained therein can issue through or between them. — William Falconer

The great weight of the ship may indeed prevent her from acquiring her greatest velocity; but when she has attained it, she will advance by her own intrinsic motion, without gaining any new degree of velocity, or lessening what she has acquired. — William Falconer

There are two exits out of this room. Choose one."
Derrick chuckles. "What a glorious comeuppance. — Elizabeth May

Falconer's grasp of period and places is almost flawless ... He's my kind of writer. — Peter Corris

I remember thinking of the passage in The Sword in the Stone where a falconer took a goshawk back onto his own fist, 'reassuming him like a lame man putting on his accustomed wooden leg, after it had been lost'. — Helen Macdonald

Only mothers will ever know the true struggle and sacrifice it takes to create life. Authors come in at a close second. — R.P. Falconer

We have to find the seal before that happens," I tell him. "Reactivate it somehow."
...
"You're the only one who can... Last night you asked me a question. Do you remember what it was?"
"What is a Falconer?" I whisper. — Elizabeth May

The admirals of his majesty's fleet are classed into three squadrons, viz. the red, the white, and the blue. — William Falconer

Of whatsoever number a fleet of ships of war is composed, it is usually divided into three squadrons; and these, if numerous, are again separated into divisions. — William Falconer

The admiral, or commander in chief of a squadron, being frequently invested with a great charge, on which the fate of a kingdom may depend, ought certainly to be possessed of abilities equal to so important a station and so extensive a command. — William Falconer

Ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal. QUELLCRIST FALCONER Things I Should Have Learned by Now Volume II There — Richard K. Morgan

Oh deep winter snow, pale executioner, thou who delights in a slow, torturous death. — T.R. Neff

With living colours give my verse to glow: The sad memorial of a tale of woe! — William Falconer

Never step on caterpillars, as one day they'll become butterflies, and you'll never know when you'll need a ride on their wings of fortune. — R.P. Falconer

You take care of my bairn."

He blinks. "I beg your pardon?"

"My ornithopter. — Elizabeth May

And I've been thinking: if the human race manages to destroy itself, as it often seems to want to do, or if some great disaster comes, as it did for the dinosaurs, then the birds will still manage to survive. When our gardens and fields and farms and woods have turned wild, when the park at the end of Falconer Road has turned into a wilderness, when our cities are in ruins, the birds will go on flying and singing and making their nests and laying their eggs and raising their young. It could be that the birds will exist for ever and for ever until the earth itself comes to an end, no matter what might happen to the other creatures. They'll sing until the end of time. So here's my thought: If there is a God, could it be that He's chosen the birds to speak for Him. Could it be true? The voice of God speaks through the beaks of birds. — David Almond

Frederick's wit was impressive. When a descendant of Ghengis Khan, who was wreaking havoc in the Muslim world, wrote threateningly that the holy Roman Emperor should surrender his lands and come to his court to become one of his vassals, Frederick replied that he'd think about it and to please hold open the position of falconer. — Nancy Goldstone