Our collection of the best owl quotes will show you just how much owls are revered as a symbol of knowledge, wisdom, and intuition.
That’s why if you’re in need of some useful nuggets of wisdom, then this collection is definitely a must-read!
This wide-eyed, nocturnal predator is symbolic of a deeper sense of knowledge.
It lets us see beyond what is and rely on our intuition to figure out different circumstances we face in life.
We’ve rounded up our favorite quotes that will help you get to know this majestic bird.
Learn more through the list below.
And make sure to read these bird quotes.
Best Owl Quotes
1. “There’s always a hidden owl in knowledge.” – E.I. Jane
2. “An owl is traditionally a symbol of wisdom. So we are neither doves nor hawks, but owls, and we are vigilant when others are resting.” – Urjit Patel
3. “The owl is nocturnal with keen senses of sight and sound. It sees through the shadows of the night and hears the sounds in the silence; the illusion of the darkness. This teaches us to see past our own illusions and trust our intuition and perceptive senses.” – Anonymous
4. “Owl is the grand and rather clever old man of the forest. He can also spell ‘Tuesday.’” – A. A. Milne
5. “Do not trap yourself into an owl’s hooting sound where sad nights linger through the blackness of a hound.” – Munia Khan
6. “A wise, old owl sat in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?” – Edward Hersey Richards
7. “If there are no nightingales, one must settle for owls.” – Danish Proverb
8. “The inauspiciousness of the owl is nothing but the inauspiciousness of the man who thinks that owl is inauspicious!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
9. “The large, white owl whose eye is blind, that hath sat for years in the old tree hollow, is carried away in a gust of wind.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Meaningful Owl Quotes
10. “People say the darkness is where secrets are best hidden. Night time brings clarity and focus to owls—even if the aperture of this vision comes with a stigma.” – Kimberly Morgan
11. “‘Owl,’ said Rabbit shortly, ‘you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest—and when I say thinking, I mean thinking—you and I must do it.’” – A.A. Milne
12. “Only the worm of conscience consorts with the owl. Sinners and evil spirits shun the light.” – Friedrich Schiller
13. “Why can’t we be like that wise old owl in the tree? Speech must die to serve that which is spoken.” – Paul Ricoeur
14. “I’m not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls.” – George Aiken
15. “The owls are not what they seem.” – Alexis Novak
16. “Thou ominous and fearful owl of death.” – William Shakespeare
17. “Have you ever stared into the owl’s eyes? They blink slowly, then burn: burn gold in the dark inner core of the snow-shrouded cedar.” – Robert Penn Warren
18. “The night to the owl and morn to the lark less welcome.” – William Shakespeare
19. “You don’t need anything but hope. The kind of hope that flies on silent wings under a shining owl moon.” – Jane Yolen
Poetic Owl Quotes
20. “Alone and warming his five wits, the white owl in the belfry sits.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
21. “The screech-owl, with ill-boding cry, portends strange things, old women say; stops every fool that passes by, and frights the school-boy from his play.” – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
22. “The owl—that bird of onomatopoeic name—is a repetitious question wrapped in feathery insulation especially for Winter delivery.” – Hal Borland
23. “Some men pray only when the world is dark, as owls hoot at night.” – Austin O’Malley
24. “The wailing owl screams solitary to the mournful moon.” – David Mallet
25. “The owl goes not into the nest of the lark.” – Victor Hugo
26. “If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there are night owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.” – Henry David Thoreau
27. “The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders at our quaint spirits.” – William Shakespeare
28. “The crow wished everything was black; the owl, that everything was white.” – William Blake
29. “The owl by day, if he arises, is mocked and wondered at.” – William Shakespeare
Owl Quotes Filled With Wisdom and Knowledge
30. “An owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees, the less it talks.” – Christie Watson
31. “Owls are wise. They are careful and patient. Wisdom precludes boldness. That is why owls make poor heroes.” – Patrick Rothfuss
32. “Advice from an owl—stay focused, be who you are, trust in a wise friend, live off the land, glide through the dark times, be observant, because life’s a hoot!” – Ilan Shamir
33. “Wisdom of owls is akin to sages, books, and knowledge reduces the brawl and adds to ages.” – Anonymous
34. “No owl is afraid of the night, no snake of the swamp, and no traitor of treason.” – Mehmet Murat İldan
35. “The owl of ignorance lays the egg of pride.” – Proverb
36. “Sometimes, an owl is just an owl.” – Mark Frost
37. “Observe and reflect, and become a little wiser every day.” – Anonymous
38. “I like to think of myself as a wise owl that learns from the mistakes of people who listened to my advice.” – Anonymous
39. “Don’t count your owls before they are delivered.” – J. K. Rowling
40. “We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit.” – Tom Brown, Jr.
41. “The owls are gathering; find out why soon.” – J. K. Rowling
42. “It’s the little details I love. How to fletch your arrows with owl feathers, because owls fly silently, so maybe your arrows will, too. How to carry fire in a piece of smouldering fungus wrapped in birchbark. These are the things which help a world come alive.” – Michelle Paver
43. “A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.” – Ernest Hemingway
44. “Some kinds of animals burrow in the ground; others do not. Some animals are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others use the hours of daylight. There are tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule are always tame; the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and others, as the elephant, are easily tamed.” – Aristotle
Beautiful Owl Quotes That Will Teach You More About Them
45. “At home, I love reaching out into that absolute silence, when you can hear the owl or the wind.” – Amanda Harlech
46. “The little owls call to each other with tremulous, quavering voices throughout the livelong night, as they sit in the creaking trees.” – Theodore Roosevelt
47. “The bat that flits at close of eve has left the brain that won’t believe. The owl that calls upon the night speaks the unbeliever’s fright.” – William Blake
48. “I’m an owl; I’m up. I probably go to sleep during the time when most people wake up. The first half of the day, you might not catch me.” – Jeremih
49. “An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn’t hear it—I breathed it into my ears.” – William Stafford
50. “You can’t hoot with the owls and then soar with the eagles.” – Hubert H. Humphrey
51. “Why should I copy this owl, this sea urchin? Why should I try to imitate nature? I might just as well try to trace a perfect circle.” – Pablo Picasso
52. “She wants to be flowers, but you make her owls. You must not complain, then, if she goes hunting.” – Alan Garner
53. “The owl is one of the most curious creatures—a bird that stays awake when the rest of the world sleeps. They can see in the dark. I find that so interesting, to be mired in reality when the rest of the world is dreaming. What does he see and what does he know that the rest of the world is missing?” – M.J. Rose
54. “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
55. “In the enemy’s territory, be as silent as the owl’s wings; in friend’s territory, be as cheerful as the nightingale’s songs.” – Mehmet Murat İldan
56. “The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat. They took some honey, and plenty of money, wrapped up in a five pound note.” – Edward Lear
57. “She is our moon—our tidal pull. She is the rich deep beneath the sea, the buried treasure, the expression in the owl’s eye, the perfume in the wild rose. She is what the water says when it moves.” – Patricia A. McKillip
58. “Midnight is another planet! When the clock strikes twelve and if you are asleep, wake up, friend, and discover the beauties of this new planet—discover the silence; discover the tranquillity; speak to the owls, speak to the moon; greet the hedgehogs and disappear in the midst of the mists!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
59. “I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise—which means looking like an owl after you have behaved like a jackass.” – Ronald Reagan
Owl Quotes That Will Interest You
60. “Owls are known as lonely birds; but it is not known that they have the forest as their best friend!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
61. “Perhaps he does not want to be friends with you until he knows what you are like. With owls, it is never easy-come-easy-go.” – T.H. White
62. “Owl hasn’t exactly got brain, but he knows things.” – A. A. Milne
63. “Do you think I was born in a wood to be afraid of an owl?” – Jonathan Swift
64. “In their previous lives, poets were bats, and thinkers were owls.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
65. “Being human is exhausting, so be an owl.” – Anonymous
66. “When the owl sings, the night is silent.” – Charles de Leusse
67. “A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.” – William Shakespeare
68. “It is odd that we have so little relationship with nature, with the insects and the leaping frog and the owl that hoots among the hills calling for its mate. We never seem to have a feeling for all living things on the earth.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
69. “Those who drink whiskey with the owls at night, cannot soar with the eagles the next day.” – Brian D. Ratty
Quotes About Being a Night Owl
70. “I used to think I was a night owl. I realized I’m not, because I have energy at night, but I’m not as focused and productive when I try to get things done.” – Caroline Ghosn
71. “I’m a night owl, and luckily my profession supports that. The best ideas come to me in the dead of night.” – Josh Fox
72. “I’m the worst night owl, because I’m a self-loathing night owl who thinks, ‘No, I should be getting up early.’ It feels unproductive. I must get over that.” – Ronny Chieng
73. “I’m a bit of a night owl because that’s when I feel the most creative and alive.” – Christina Aguilera
74. “I’m a night owl; I could work until 6 in the morning without even thinking about it.” – Julie Plec
75. “I love filming at night. I’m like a night owl.” – Noah Schnapp
76. “I am both a night owl and an early bird. So I am wise and I have worms.” – Michael Scott
77. “I generally stay with a chapter until I am satisfied, do very little rewriting, and if a scene is going well, I’ve been known to keep night owl hours.” – Sharon Kay Penman
78. “I’m a night owl for sure. I was born at 1 A.M., and that’s the excuse I use.” – Karla Souza
79. “First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I’m a night owl.” – Marion Barry
80. “I’m a bit of a night owl, I’m always visiting the gym throughout the night.” – Jimi Manuwa
81. “I’ve always been a night owl.” – Blake Lively
82. “I write in the mornings or afternoons—I’m not a night owl and can write for only four or five hours maximum.” – Sarah Hall
83. “Being a nocturnal creature myself, I often find myself in dark alleys or strange places late at night. If there were werewolves around, I’d be likely to run into them, being the night owl that I am.” – Dean Ambrose
84. “I’m up all night, and then next thing you know, it’s the morning, and I’ll sleep, like, three hours. I’m a night owl. I’m usually in the studio at night working, and then I get home, I’m on my phone looking at Instagram pictures and buying stuff.” – Christina Milian
Noteworthy Owl Quotes From Famous Authors and Books
85. “Other sound than the owl’s voice there was none, save the falling of a fountain into its stone basin; for, it was one of those dark nights that hold their breath by the hour together, and then heave a long low sigh, and hold their breath again.” – Charles Dickens
86. “Marriage is a wrestling match where you hold on tight while your mate changes into a hundred different things. The trick is that you’re changing into a hundred other things, but you can’t let go. You can only try to match up and never turn into a wolf while he’s a rabbit, or a mouse while he’s still busy being an owl, a brawny black bull while he’s a little blue crab scuttling for shelter. It’s harder than it sounds.” – Catherynne M. Valente
87. “I like owls. I admire their intransigent spirit. I have respected them deeply ever since I met a baby owl in a wood, when it fell over dead, apparently from sheer temper, because I dared to approach it. It defied me first, and then died. I have never forgotten the horror and shame I experienced when that soft fluffy thing—towards which I had nothing but the most humanitarian motives—fell dead from rage at my feet.” – Vita Sackville-West
88. “But the owls themselves are not hard to find—silent and on the wing, with their ear tufts flat against their heads as they fly and their huge wings alternately gliding and flapping as they maneuver through the trees. Athena’s owl of wisdom and Merlin’s companion, Archimedes, were screech owls surely, not this bird with the glassy gaze, restless on the bough, nothing but blood on its mind.” – Mary Oliver
89. “She had always lived her best life in dreams. She knew no greater pleasure than that moment of passage into the other place, when her limbs grew warm and heavy and the sparkling darkness behind her lids became ordered and doors opened; when conscious thought grew owl’s wings and talons and became other than conscious.” – John Crowley
90. “Lovely are the curves of the white owl sweeping, wavy in the dusk lit by one large star. Lone on the fir-branch, his rattle-note unvaried, brooding o’er the gloom, spins the brown eve-jar.” – George Meredith
91. “You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
92. “Listen to advice and accept instruction and in the end, you will be wise. Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom—and with all thy getting, get understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7
93. “If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner.” – Terry Goodkind
94. “If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” – Roald Dahl
95. “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” – William James
96. “Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing it.” – David Starr Jordan
97. “It was great to see the owls. They’re wild things, of course—killers, savages. They’re wonderful.” – David Almond
98. “The moon seems unaware of the night’s dark, hitting on the damp warm rain, misguiding the owl’s spitting. A thunder light of love, raising hearts, beating while weather learns more from rain lovers meeting.” – Munia Khan
99. “An owl is mostly air.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
Funny Owl Quotes
100. “My friends call me an owl. Apparently, it’s a combination of being wise and having big eyes.” – Romy Madley Croft
101. “It was a lot like working at Hogwarts, except that, instead of receiving letters from our owls, we would find coughed-up owl pellets in our coffee mugs.” – Stacey O’Brien
102. “I’ve seen the elephant, heard the owl, and flown the screaming eagle.” – Bob Lemon
103. “I had a dream that we purchased an owl that sat there in silence and never did scowl.” – Anonymous
104. “I think I’m a tiny bit like Harry ‘cos I’d like to have an owl. Yeah, that’s the tiny bit, actually.” – Daniel Radcliffe
More Owl Quotes
105. “Owl looked at him, and wondered whether to push him off the tree; but, feeling that he could always do it afterwards, he tried once more to find out what they were talking about.” – A. A. Milne
106. “To be honest, owls aren’t the brightest of birds, amazing as they are; parrots and crows are much smarter. It’s all in the eyes—those magnificent piercing optics are what make all owls look like they are deep in concentrated scrutiny and steeped in long-lost knowledge.” – Matt Sewell
107. “Owl City is exactly as you’d imagine him. It’s hard to have much on him. He’s like a frightened bunny. I feel like if you yelled at him, he’d just dart to a corner of the room.” – Mat Kearney
108. “Rabbit and owl are aging bachelors whose respective megalomania and fussiness are tempered only by their mutual friendship, of which the less said, the better.” – Frederick C. Crews
109. “In the hierarchy of public lands, national parks by law have been above the rest. America’s most special places, where natural beauty and all its attendant pleasures—quiet waters, the scents of fir and balsam, the hoot of an owl, and the dark of a night sky unsullied by city lights—are sacrosanct.” – Michael Shnayerson
110. “That little owl with a call as steady as my heartbeat was telling anyone who would listen, ‘I am here.’ We were listening. We’re listening, still.” – Heather Durham
Did These Owl Quotes Make You Understand Their Symbolism and Significance?
Owls are elusive, they’re creatures of the night, and they don’t easily reveal themselves to others. They also hold different symbols and significance for many religions and cultures.
But one thing’s for sure—they evolved their senses and physical attributes in order to adapt to the night and their environment. This is one of the things we can apply in our own day-to-day lives: adaptation. Like owls, we need to understand the world around us and our current capabilities.
Once we recognize the things we need to improve, we should continue working towards evolving to become better of ourselves. Through this, we’ll be able to adapt to our environment, and be able to conquer everything that’s ahead of us.
What do you think about owls? Are they also one of your favorite birds? What lessons did you pick up from today’s collection? Leave a comment down below.