Words matter. These are the best John James Audubon Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
On landing at New York I caught the yellow fever. The kind man who commanded the ship that brought me from France took charge of me and placed me under the care of two Quaker ladies. To their skillful and untiring care I may safely say I owe my life.
Almost every day, instead of going to school, I made for the fields, where I spent my day.
The Carrion Crow and Turkey-Buzzard possess great power of recollection, so as to recognise at a great distance a person who has shot at them, and even the horse on which he rides.
I looked long and carefully at the picture of a stag painted by Landseer – the style was good, and the brush was handled with fine effect; but he fails in copying Nature, without which the best work will be a failure.
Travelling through the breeding places of our species is far from being as interesting to me as it is to inspect the breeding places of the feathery tribes of our country.
I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.
In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.
A few days of idleness have completely sickened me, and given me what is called the blue-devils so severely, that I feel that the sooner I go to work and drive them off, the better.
My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish.
In America, business is the first object in view at all times, and rightly it should be so.
Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me.
Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more. For dancing I was quite enthusiastic.
July 2. A beautiful day for Labrador. Went ashore and killed nothing, but was pleased with what I saw. The country is so grandly wild and desolate that I am charmed by its wonderful dreariness.
Great men show politeness in a particular way; a smile suffices to assure you that you are welcome, and keep about their avocations as if you were a member of the family.
But Hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns.
I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could.
I discover that my friends think only of my apparel, and those upon whom I have conferred acts of kindness prefer to remind me of my errors.
To have been torn from the study would have been as death; my time was entirely occupied with art.
The eggers destroy all the eggs that are sat upon, to force the birds to lay fresh eggs, and by robbing them regularly compel them to lay until nature is exhausted, and so but few young ones are raised.
The fact is I am growing old too fast, alas! I feel it, and yet work I will, and may God grant me life to see the last plate of my mammoth work finished.
The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear.
How could I make a little book, when I have seen enough to make a dozen large books?
If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America.
I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens.
Surrounded by all the members of my dear family, enjoying the affection of numerous friends, who have never abandoned me, and possessing a sufficient share of all that contributes to make life agreeable, I lift my grateful eyes towards the Supreme Being and feel that I am happy.
