
“What wings are to a bird, and sails to a ship, so is prayer to the soul.”
Oh, You Are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place
Don't Be Frightened of Turning the Page (2001)
“What wings are to a bird, and sails to a ship, so is prayer to the soul.”
This saying appears to be due to John Augustus Shedd; it was quoted in "Grace Hopper : The Youthful Teacher of Us All" by Henry S. Tropp in Abacus Vol. 2, Issue 1 (Fall 1984) ISSN 0724-6722 . She did repeat this saying on multiple occasions, but she called it "a motto that has stuck with me" and did not claim coinage. Additional variations and citations may be found at Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/12/09/safe-harbor/
Misattributed
Source: Collected Fictions
“Every ship is a romantic object, except that we sail in.”
1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), Experience
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/eugenefield/poems/poemsofchildhood/wynkenblynkenandnod.html, st. 1
Love Songs of Childhood (1894)
Source: Sailing Alone around the World