--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Once upon a time, there was a bird. He…" description: "\"“Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. One day, a woman saw this bir..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg" --- # Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with… ![“Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and…” quote by Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg) > ““Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird. But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she thought: “I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again.” The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage. She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: “Now you have everything you could possibly want.” However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage. One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds. If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body. Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. “Why have you come?” she asked Death. “So that you can fly once more with him across the sky,” Death replied. “If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him ever more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.”” [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The story illustrates how possessing something out of love can lead to loss of its essence, and that true appreciation lies in freedom, not ownership. **In simple terms:** Owning what you love can strip it of its life; freedom is the true value. Key Takeaway Cherish freedom over possession. Themes love freedom loss attachment meaning Mood melancholy reflective Type parabolic philosophical When to use this quote - relationships - personal growth - grief - reflection - death Key Concepts possessiveness transformation mortality Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance love and freedom? - What does freedom mean to you in relationships? A Different Perspective If you keep love confined, it with wither; true love thrives when it can move. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bird](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird/) [Bird Adorned](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird-adorned-5280978/) [Bird Appears](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird-appears-5280979/) [Bird Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird-love-307648/) [Bird Thought](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird-thought-4108115/) [Every day](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/every-day/) [First time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/first-time/) [Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love/) [Next time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/next-time/) [Perfect harmony](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/perfect-harmony/) [Physical body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/physical-body/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [“name petrel is supposedly a diminutive of Peter. 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It is the same bird That we all love to see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sri-chinmoy/what-is-joy-it-is-a-bird-that-we-all-want-to-catch-it-is-the-same/) [Sri Chinmoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sri-chinmoy/) > [“A bird may love a fish but where would they build a home together?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-stein/a-bird-may-love-a-fish-but-where-would-they-build-a-home-together/) [Joseph Stein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-stein/) > [“116. "I have heard that on the day the world was born, the bird of love was released to fly. It searched all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mir-sayyid-manjhan-shattari-rajgiri/116-i-have-heard-that-on-the-day-the-world-was-born-the-bird-of-love/) [Mir Sayyid Manjhan Shattari Rajgiri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mir-sayyid-manjhan-shattari-rajgiri/) > [“Little Bird, our love has been hard-earned from the very beginning. It is more precious to me than anything on earth. 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But my silence suggests I may be the Pterodactyl of Love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-am-not-the-bird-of-love-i-once-thought-i-was-but-my-silence/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“The Beggar and the Monk - Paulo Coelho A monk was meditating in the desert when a beggar came up to him and said:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-beggar-and-the-monk-paulo-coelho-a-monk-was-meditating-in-the/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/if-she-had-looked-more-deeply-into-herself-she-would-have-realized/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shunryu-suzuki/the-seed-has-no-idea-of-being-some-particular-plant-but-it-has-its/) [Shunryu Suzuki](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shunryu-suzuki/) > [“Free Flowing Dialogue “Have you ever been engaged in a conversation which was so dynamic that you were both firing on all cylinders, in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/free-flowing-dialogue-have-you-ever-been-engaged-in-a-conversation/) [Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) ## More by Paulo Coelho > [I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/i-have-inside-me-the-winds-the-deserts-the-oceans-the-stars-and/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [Love will never separate a man from his personal legend.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/love-will-never-separate-a-man-from-his-personal-legend/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [The world has a soul and whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of many things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-world-has-a-soul-and-whoever-understands-that-soul-can-also/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [You dont choose your life; it chooses you. 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And walk when it is time to walk.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/eat-when-it-is-time-to-eat-and-walk-when-it-is-time-to-walk/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [People are reading more and writing more because of the internet. So the virtual world is a way for me to listen to my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/people-are-reading-more-and-writing-more-because-of-the-internet-so/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“Joy is like sex – it begins and ends. I want pleasure. I want to be contended, but happiness? I no longer fall into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/joy-is-like-sex-it-begins-and-ends-i-want-pleasure-i-want-to-be/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“Trudi se da zivis, sjecanja su za starije ljude.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/trudi-se-da-zivis-sjecanja-su-za-starije-ljude/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [I've always been a very restless person. I work hard, spend too much time looking after my son, I dance like a mad thing,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/i-ve-always-been-a-very-restless-person-i-work-hard-spend-too-much/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/when-someone-leaves-it-s-because-someone-else-is-about-to-arrive/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [The past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-past-and-the-future-become-unimportant-there-is-only-that-moment/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [She didn't need to understand the meaning of life; it was enough to find someone who did, and then fall asleep in his arms…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/she-didn-t-need-to-understand-the-meaning-of-life-it-was-enough-to/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [“The simpler the pose, the better; the more sober, the more beautiful.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-simpler-the-pose-the-better-the-more-sober-the-more-beautiful/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) [Explore all 3,665 Paulo Coelho quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) ## More Bird quotes > [And I have been very blessed, having coached some of the greatest that have ever played the game. But if I had to start…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/red-auerbach/and-i-have-been-very-blessed-having-coached-some-of-the-greatest-that/) [Red Auerbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/red-auerbach/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [Set the bird's wings with gold and it will never again soar in thesky.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/set-the-bird-s-wings-with-gold-and-it-will-never-again-soar-in-thesky/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [“He unfixes the metal notch and slips his hand around the body of the bird. Feels its heat, its small heart beating. He stares…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nina-schuyler/he-unfixes-the-metal-notch-and-slips-his-hand-around-the-body-of-the/) [Nina Schuyler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nina-schuyler/) > [I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-e-cummings/i-would-rather-learn-from-one-bird-how-to-sing-than-to-teach-10-000/) [e. e. cummings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-e-cummings/) > [Can you imagine any better example of divine creative accomplishment that the consummate flying machine that is a bird? 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If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-addison/every-wife-ought-to-answer-for-her-man-if-the-husband-be-engaged-in-a/) [Joseph Addison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-addison/) > [Meanwhile, the trees were just as green as before; the birds sang and the sun shone as clearly now as ever. The familiar surroundings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hardy/meanwhile-the-trees-were-just-as-green-as-before-the-birds-sang-and/) [Thomas Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hardy/) > [When they started to drain a swamp where birds and fish had lived, for a new housing development down the road from his apartment,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maile-meloy/when-they-started-to-drain-a-swamp-where-birds-and-fish-had-lived-for/) [Maile Meloy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maile-meloy/) > [The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colleen-mccullough/the-bird-with-the-thorn-in-its-breast-it-follows-an-immutable-law-it/) [Colleen McCullough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colleen-mccullough/) > [Real like sucks the life out of losers. if you want to fuck with the eagles, you must learn how to fly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/real-like-sucks-the-life-out-of-losers-if-you-want-to-fuck-with-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“If we studied birds ,maybe we could learn to be free.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-alire-s-enz/if-we-studied-birds-maybe-we-could-learn-to-be-free/) [Benjamin Alire Sáenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-alire-s-enz/) [Browse all 4,802 Bird quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird. But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she thought: “I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again.” The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage. She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: “Now you have everything you could possibly want.” However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage. One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds. If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body. Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. “Why have you come?” she asked Death. “So that you can fly once more with him across the sky,” Death replied. “If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him ever more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paulo Coelho" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was-adorned-with-two-perfect/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Bird" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was-adorned-with-two-perfect/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb7/paulo-coelho-10_bird_once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-bird-he-was_2273809.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Once upon a time, there was a bird. 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