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Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.

Stephen King#75

LossChoiceNatureConfinementFreedom

About this quote

What does it mean?
Some beings are too free and vibrant for confinement, and freeing them brings joy despite the resulting emptiness.
In plain terms
Free spirits can't be caged; letting them go is right but leaves a void.
What can you take from it?
True freedom often requires letting go even if it leaves you lonely.

Where it applies

  • letting go
  • parenting
  • breakups

Putting it to work

  • supporting autonomy
  • accepting absence

Questions to consider

  • When is it right to let someone go?
  • Can joy coexist with emptiness?

Another view

It romanticizes loss without acknowledging the practical costs of freedom.

More from Stephen King

  1. Either get busy living or get busy dying

    Permalink to quote #74
  2. Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

    Permalink to quote #76
  3. The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed …

    Permalink to quote #73

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