“If wishes were butter-cakes, beggars might bite.
If wishes were thrushes, beggars would eat birds.
If wishes would bide, beggars would ride.”

— John Ray

Source: English Proverbs (1670), p. 174

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John Ray 8

British botanist 1627–1705

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Context: When next he came to me he was drunk—royally drunk on many poets for the first time revealed to him. His pupils were dilated, his words tumbled over each other, and he wrapped himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.