Macarius of Egypt (300–391) Egyptian Christian monk and hermit
Homily 2. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, trans. George A. Maloney.
Disputed
Homily 2. Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian, trans. Arthur J. Mason.
Disputed
Macarius of Egypt (300–391) Egyptian Christian monk and hermit
Homily 2. The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, trans. George A. Maloney.
Disputed
Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) American evangelist and publisher
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 40.
“However wickedness outstrips men, it has no wings to fly from God.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Derived from a longer quote in Henry V, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 283.
Misattributed
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Prophet
“If wishes were wings, pigs would fly.”
Robert Jordan book The Eye of the World
Old saying in Randland
(15 October 1994)
Source: The Eye of the World
“If God wanted us to fly, he would have given us tickets. ”
Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic
The Spiritual Espousals (c. 1340)
Context: You should watch the wise bee and do as it does. It dwells in unity, in the congregation of its fellows, and goes forth, not in the storm, but in calm and still weather, in the sunshine, towards all those flowers in which sweetness may be found. It does not rest on any flower, neither on any beauty nor on any sweetness; but it draws from them honey and wax, that is to say, sweetness and light-giving matter, and brings both to the unity of the hive, that therewith it may produce fruits, and be greatly profitable. Christ, the Eternal Sun, shining into the open heart, causes that heart to grow and to bloom, and it overflows with all the inward powers with joy and sweetness. So the wise man will do like the bee, and he will fly forth with attention and with reason and with discretion, towards all those gifts and towards all that sweetness which he has ever experienced, and towards all the good which God has ever done to him. And in the light of love and with inward observation, he will taste of the multitude of consolations and good things; and will not rest upon any flower of the gifts of God, but, laden with gratitude and praise, will fly back into the unity, wherein he wishes to rest and to dwell eternally with God.
“Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.”
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist
"Dreams," from the anthology Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers, ed. Arna Bontemps (1941)