“A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.”
-G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

“A cook she certainly was, in the very bone and centre of her soul. Not a....turkey....in the barn-yard but looked grave when they saw her approaching, and seemed evidently to be reflecting on their latter end; and certain it was that she was always meditating on trussing, stuffing and roasting, to a degree that was calculated to inspire terror in any reflecting fowl living.”
-A description of Aunt Chloe in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)

"I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country.....The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America."
-Benjamin Franklin

“TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.”
-Ambrose Bierce, ‘The Devil's Dictionary’ (1911)