Falconry Quotes

“Breaking, in modern psychology, 'learned helplessness.' This is where you crush an animal's desire to fight. Why is it that we believe broken things are tamed possessions?”
― Rebecca K. O'Connor, Lift

“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, Lift

“What a bursting heart of gratitude and triumph as the ravening monster slowly paced down the arm with gripping steps and pounced upon his breakfast! The rest of the day was a glow of pleasure, a kind of still life in which the sun shone on the flowers with more than natural brilliance, giving them the high lights of porcelain.”
― T.H. White, The Goshawk

“In teaching a hawk it was useless to bludgeon the creature into submission. The raptors had no tradition of masochism, and the more one menaced or tortured them, the more they menaced in return. [...] Any cruelty, being immediately resented, was worse than useless, because the bird would never bend or break to it. He possessed the last inviolable sanctuary of death. The mishandled raptor chose to die.”
― T.H. White, The Goshawk