Quotes from Rootabaga Stories

Carl Sandburg ·  192 pages

Rating: (565 votes)


“Didn't you tie the mittens on her feet (Wednesday Evening's) extra special nice?
Yes--she is an extra special nice pigeon. She cries for pity when she wants pity. And she shuts her eyes when she doesn't want to look at you. And if you look deep in her eyes when her eyes are open you will see lights there exactly like the lights on the pastures and the meadows when the mist is drifting on a Wednesday evening just between the twilight and gloaming.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“One summer afternoon I came home and found all the umbrellas sitting in the kitchen, with straw hats on, telling who they are.
...
The umbrella that peels the potatoes with a pencil and makes a pink ink with the peelings stood up and said, "I am the umbrella that peels the potatoes with a pencil and makes a pink ink with the peelings." ...
The umbrella that runs to the corner to get corners for the handkerchiefs stood up and said, "I am the umbrella that runs to the corner to get corners for the handkerchiefs."

...

"I am the umbrella that holds up the sky. I am the umbrella the rain comes through. I am the umbrella that tells the sky when to begin raining and when to stop raining.
"I am the umbrella that goes to pieces when the wind blows and then puts itself back together again when the wind goes down. I am the first umbrella, the last umbrella, the one and only umbrella all other umbrellas are named after, first, last and always."
When the stranger finished this speech telling who he was and where he came from, all the other umbrellas sat still for a little while, to be respectful.

― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“Did you name your pigeons with names?" asked Wiffle (the Chick).
These three, the sandy and golden brown, all named themselves by where they came from. This is Chickamauga, here is Chattanooga, and this is Chattahoochee. And the other three all got their names from me when I was feeling high and easy. This is Blue Mist, here is Bubbles, and last of all take a look at Wednesday Evening in the Twilight and the Gloaming."
Do you always call her Wednesday Evening in the Twilight and the Gloaming?"
Not when I am making coffee from breakfast. If I am making coffee for breakfast then I just call her Wednesday Evening.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“Show me the telegrams they sent you, one every day for six days while they were walking six hundred miles on their pigeon toes."
..
1. Feet are as good as wings if you have to. Chickamauga. ...
3. In the night sleeping you forget whether you have wings or feet or neither. Chattahoochee. ...
6. Pity me. Far is far. Near is near. and there is no place like home when the yellow roses climb up the ladders and sing in the early summer. Pity me. Wednesday Evening In The Twilight And The Gloaming.
..
Well, Wednesday Evening was the only one I noticed making any mention of the yellow roses in her telegram," Hatrack the Horse explained.
Then the old man and the girl sat on the cracker box saying nothing, only listening to the yellow roses all on fire with early summer climbing up th ecrooked ladders, up and down and crossways, some of them leaning out and curving and nearly falling.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“Ако нямаш как, краката са не по-лоши от крилата.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories



“They are lovely pigeons to look at and their eyes are full of lessons to learn.."
They came back yesterday, they came back home," was the answer. "They came back limping on their feet with their toes turned in so far they nearly turned backward.
Every day the last six days I get a telegram, six telegrams from six pigeons--and at last they come home.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“…Намерението е едно такова нещо, което те гризе отвътре и ти нашепва тихо "...ела и ме намери, ела и ме намери...”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“An ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart night and day, singing a little song, 'Come and find me, come and find me'.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


“I will be back soon if not sooner and when I come back I will return.”
― Carl Sandburg, quote from Rootabaga Stories


About the author

Carl Sandburg
Born date January 6, 1878
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“In early 1941, the United States was a fifth-rate military power, its armed forces ranking seventeenth in size compared to other world forces. Long starved of financial support by Congress and the White House, the Army had little more than 300,000 men (most of them just drafted), compared to Germany’s 4 million and Britain’s 1.6 million. Not a single armored division existed, and draftees were training with broomsticks for rifles and sawhorses for antitank guns. The Army was in such bad shape, according to one military historian, that it would not have been able to “repel raids across the Rio Grande by Mexican bandits.” Although the Navy was in better condition, nearly half its vessels dated back to World War I. The Army Air Corps, meanwhile, could boast only about two thousand combat aircraft. After”
― Lynne Olson, quote from Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour


“I am a fighting man, not a scientist. Here,”
― Edgar Rice Burroughs, quote from The Warlord of Mars


“I mean, I've had the name Finbar for sixteen years, and I've only been punched in the face once.”
― Flynn Meaney, quote from Bloodthirsty


“Success consists of going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Jack Canfield, quote from The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be


“A volte si apre un abisso fra il passato e il futuro. Quando una persona si è incamminata nella valle all'ombra della morte, e ne torna fuori alla luce del sole...è allora, mon cher, che comincia una nuova vita. Il passato non serve più.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from Sad Cypress


Interesting books

Guilty Pleasures
(119.8K)
Guilty Pleasures
by Laurell K. Hamilton
Night World, No. 1
(58.5K)
Night World, No. 1
by L.J. Smith
Unravel Me
(129.1K)
Unravel Me
by Tahereh Mafi
It's Kind of a Funny Story
(178.5K)
It's Kind of a Funny...
by Ned Vizzini
Still Alice
(256.8K)
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova
Ficciones
(37.7K)
Ficciones
by Jorge Luis Borges

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.