Bats Quotes

“Favorite Quotations.
I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue.
The worth of a book is measured by what you carry away from it.
It's not over till it's over.
Imagination is everything.
All life is an experiment.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly.”
― Pat Frayne, Tales of Topaz the Conjure Cat: Part I Topaz and the Evil Wizard & Part II Topaz and the Plum-Gista Stone

“The bat was looking at Theo and Theo was having trouble following his own thoughts.The bat was wearing tiny sunglasses.Ray Bans,Theo could see by the trademark in the corner of one lens."I'm sorry, Mr.,uh- Case, could you take the bat off your head.It's very distracting."
Him."
Pardon?"
It's a him.Roberto.He no like the light.”
― Christopher Moore, The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

“The streetlight outside my house shines on tonight and I'm watching it like it could give me a vision. James ain't talked ever and he looks at that streetlight like it was a word and maybe like it was a verb. James wanted to streetlight me and make me bright and beautiful so all the moths and bats would circle me like I was the center of the world an held secrets.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“-Bumblebee bat, how do you see at night?
-I make a squeaky sound that bounces back from whatever it hits. I see by hearing.”
― Darrin Lunde, Hello, Bumblebee Bat

“And so, with a torn sleeve and a keyboard on which cigarette
ash can rest, writers ended up arsonists of recycled material with
a blanket over fast burning fires to send fragments of reality to the
sky for people to manage any way they wish. Or can." (intro "Throwing Dice on a Chessboard”
― Christos Rodoulla Tsiailis, Throwing Dice on a Chessboard:

“The Paperbats book. Successful publication release with 30 books downloaded in first day and a half.
"This delightful childrens' book has just been published on smashwords, where it can be read for free! I invite you to enjoy a lovely story with yany young children.”
― Jerry Evans

“In order to avoid the deafening of conspecifics, some bats employ a jamming avoidance response, rapidly shifting frequencies or flying silent when foraging near conspecifics. Because jamming is a problem facing any active emission sensory system, it is perhaps not surprising (though no less amazing) that similar jamming avoidance responses are deployed by weakly electric fish. The speed of sound is so fast in water that it makes it difficult for echolocating whales to exploit similar Doppler effects. However, the fact that acoustic emissions propagate much farther and faster in the water medium means that there is less attenuation of ultrasound in water, and thus that echolocation can be used for broader-scale 'visual' sweeping of the undersea environment.
These constraints and trade-offs must be resolved by all acoustic ISMs, on Earth and beyond. There are equally universal anatomical and metabolic constraints on the evolvability of echolocation that explain why it is 'harder' to evolve than vision. First, as noted earlier, a powerful sound-production capacity, such as the lungs of tetrapods, is required to produce high-frequency emissions capable of supporting high-resolution acoustic imaging. Second, the costs of echolocation are high, which may limit acoustic imaging to organisms with high-metabolisms, such as mammals and birds. The metabolic rates of bats during echolocation, for instance, are up to five times greater than they are at rest. These costs have been offset in bats through the evolutionarily ingenious coupling of sound emission to wing-beat cycle, which functions as a single unit of biomechanical and metabolic efficiency. Sound emission is coupled with the upstroke phase of the wing-beat cycle, coinciding with contraction of abdominal muscles and pressure on the diaphragm. This significantly reduces the price of high-intensity pulse emission, making it nearly costless. It is also why, as any careful crepuscular observer may have noticed, bats spend hardly any time gliding (which is otherwise a more efficient means of flight).”
― Russell Powell, Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind

“But unlike Vegas,
what happens in a poet's cave
never stays in a poet's cave...
We tend to release
the bats”
― Casey Renee Kiser, Confessions of A Dead Petal

“Even up until the final moment of life, bat and moth are linked together forever, through time, and beyond. As a last-gasp evasive maneuver, a fleeing moth will sometimes stop its wingbeats in midflight, thereby ceasing to give off data to the bat's radar. But sometimes the bat will pause, too, so that the moth can't pick up any radar signals-the bat seeming to have disappeared-and for just the briefest of moments they will both hang there, suspended in eternity.”
― Rick Bass, The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness

“To all in the village I seemed, no doubt,
To go this way and that way, aimlesssly.
But here by the river you can see at twilight
The soft-winged bats fly zig-zag here and there-
They must fly so to catch their food.
And if you have ever lost your way at night
In the deep wood near Miller's Ford,
And dodged this way and now that,
Wherever the light of the Milky Way shone through,
Trying to find the path,
You should understand I sought the way
With earnest zeal, and all my wanderings
Were wanderings in the quest.”
― Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology

“Now sped he like a pirate of the air. Now fled she like a flying yacht gold-laden, away, away, and the warm wind whistled, left behind. But the pirate surely wins when the prize is not averse to being taken. Not many a span of the winding stream, not many a wing-beat of that flight ere Atalapha was skimming side by side with a glorified Silver-brown. How rich and warm was that coat. How gentle, alluring the form and the exquisite presence that told without sounds of a spirit that also had hungered.”
― Ernest Thompson Seton, Billy and other stories from Wild Animals Ways being personal histories of Billy Atalapha, the Wild Geese of Wyndygoul Jinny

“And who shall tell the history of his bright young jailers at the mill? Little is known but this: the pestilence born of the flies alighted on that home, and when the grim one left it there were two new mounds, short mounds in the sleeping ground that is overlooked by the wooden tower. Who can tell us what snowflake set the avalanche a-rolling, or what was the one, the very spark which, quenched, had saved the royal city from the flames. This only did we know: that the Bats were destroying the bearers of the plague about that house; many Bats had fallen by the gun, and the plague struck in that house where the blow was hardest to be borne. We do not know. It is a chain with many links; we have not the light to see; and the only guide that is always safe to follow in the gloom is the golden thread of kindness, the gospel of Assisi’s Saint.”
― Ernest Thompson Seton, Billy and other stories from Wild Animals Ways being personal histories of Billy Atalapha, the Wild Geese of Wyndygoul Jinny

“Twice nightly they went flying with Mother to the long wet valley through the timber, and though at first they wearied before they had covered thrice the length of the Beaver ponds, their strength grew quickly, and the late Thunder Moon saw them nearly full grown, strong on the wing, and rejoicing in the power of flight. Oh what a joy it was, when the last streak of light was gone from the western world rim, to scramble to the hole and launch into the air – one, two, three- Mother, Brother, and Little Brother to go kiting, scooting, circling, sailing, diving, and soaring – with flutter, wheel, and downward plunge. Then sharp with huger they would dart for the big abounding game – great fat Luna moths, roaring June-bugs, luscious cecropias, and a thousand smaller gave were whizzing and flitting on every side, a plenteous feast for those of wings of speed.”
― Ernest Thompson Seton, Billy and other stories from Wild Animals Ways being personal histories of Billy Atalapha, the Wild Geese of Wyndygoul Jinny

“The sunset of the forest had given the signal to robin and tanager to begin their vesper song. The sunset of the mount had issued the dew-time call that conjures out of the caves and hollow trees the smallest of the winged Brownie folk, whose kingdom is the twilight and whose dance hall is high above the tree-tops.”
― Ernest Thompson Seton, Raggylug and Other Stories From Wild Animals I Have Known Being the Personal Histories of Raggylug, the Springfield Fox, the Pacing Mustang, Wully

“Afraid you won’t be able to keep up,” needled Volant, interrupting. “I thought you were The Fastest Flier in the Sky?!”

“Really,” said Gabby. “That’s how you’re going to play this?”

“Yep, slowpoke, that’s how I’m going to play it.”

And without another word, Volant the eagle launched into the air, pointed south, with not so much as a glance back.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“Thank goodness,” said Gabby after all the bats had landed. Then the seagull crept to the edge of the perch where he and Volant rested, and leaned far out and over, ducking and twisting his head to peer below the branches and almost tumbling into space. Straightening back up, Gabby exclaimed, “Talk about a head rush—the bats are all perched upside down!”
― Scott Bischke

“Reluctantly the four people backed away from the fence, the young man shouting to the young woman and cupping his hand to his ear as if holding a phone. The young woman shook her head yes, then turned to walk back up the coast, holding the small girl’s hand, the uniformed man close behind.

When the young woman looked back over her shoulder one last time, the small girl broke away, sprinting out onto the beach. The young woman raced out and caught the small girl, but not before she had scattered a flock of seagulls into the sky.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“Wow, so much to learn!" said Volant the eagle. "Fish-eating bats, pale bats, bats with little ears, bats with long noses, bats with noses that look like leaves… Next thing you know, you’re going to tell me there are bats that drink blood like vampires!”

“There are those, indeed, as well,” said Sully the Leaf-nosed bat.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“Some of the guard bats hung from the tall cardón cactus that partially blocked the entrance to the cave; some guard bats hung along the edge of the cave entrance. The presence of these burly guards, along with the big cardón cactus, created a formidable boundary, a wall of sorts that could be used for controlling entry to the cave.

And for the Pallid bats controlling who could enter the cave was precisely the goal.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“The people said there might be disease in the cave," said Gabby the seagull. "They seemed really worried. They kept talking about how people can give the bats something called COVID and how bad that would be because even if the bats don’t get sick they can pass it on to other animals or right back to people later. And also they talked about a fungus and white noses and feeble bats and bats flying off-kilter and about how bat colonies around the world have been wiped out.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“Once she’d lifted the bat out of the cage, the younger woman turned slowly, lifted her hands high, then said, “Time to go home, little one” as she opened her hands.

The bat hesitated for a moment, as if unclear it was free to go, then it fluttered away. The people watched by headlamp as the bat circled them twice, before disappearing into the sky.

All the while, the older man with the camera had been positioning himself to record the moment. His photo caught the young scientist silhouetted on one side of the image, the dark outline of the island on the other side, just as the bat took flight into the orange sunrise glowing across the water.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“As they moved to push off the boat, a loud squawk sounded near at hand. The people pulled up short in time see the outline of a seagull fly past, the bird chattering wildly. Before anyone could speak, another bird took flight from the palapa. This bird, far larger than the first, passed overhead as a dark apparition. The big bird made no sound, save the gentle whoosh from its massive wings.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“I’ve always wanted to go to Australia," said Volant the eagle. "Just think of it: kangaroos and koala bears, wallabies and wombats!”

“Cool enough,” returned Gabby the seagull. “But I’ve always wanted to see a platypus. Sort of a beaver with a duckbill?! How can that possibly be?”

“Nothing surprises me much anymore,” said Volant. “Seems like almost anything is possible.”
― Scott Bischke, Bat Cave: A Fable of Epidemic Proportions

“I informed him that the cottage had been perfectly satisfactory as it was, to which he replied that the place had been so dank and cheerless as to be suitable only to bats and unsociable gargoyles brooding over their books, and he would sooner put his eyes out than endure weeks of such wretched environs.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“I have long found bats to be one of the more fascinating creatures our animal kingdom has to offer. From the dog-sized Malaysian flying foxes down to the adorable and puffy Honduran white bats, they intrigue me to no end.”
― Aesop Rock

“My uncle used to take me and my brothers fishing in northeastern Pennsylvania, and when it started getting dark, small bats would dart around, occasionally colliding with our fishing lines sitting out in the water. I loved it.”
― Aesop Rock

“There are more than 1,000 different species of bats in the world, and many of them can be seen with relative ease if you know the environments they like. Bat houses can also be installed in one’s yard to attract some leathery-winged friends, which are great at keeping insects to a minimum.”
― Aesop Rock

“It should also be mentioned that since 2006, a relatively mysterious fungal disease known as White-nose syndrome has killed more than six million bats in North America. The cause and cure is currently being researched, but I believe as of now the decimated populations remain a sad mystery. Here’s to hoping these little dudes prosper in the face of terrible times.”
― Aesop Rock

“GX-P2V, a great name for a killer covid. As if we didn't have enough problems with the first one, they have now enhanced it so that it has a 100% mortality rate.
You really have to think..."What are they thinking?"
And the truth is, I don't think they are.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Being scared but doing it anyway, that's brave.

-Shade Silverwing”
― Kenneth Oppel, Firewing