“Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.”
Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American actress, model
Source: Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some (2005)
A collection of quotes on the topic of flying, fly, likeness, doing.
“Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.”
Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American actress, model
Source: Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some (2005)
“If the ride is more fly, you must buy”
Snoop Dogg (1971) American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”
Alejandro Jodorowsky (1929) Filmmaker and comics writer
As quoted in Investing with Impact: Why Finance is a Force for Good (2016) by Jeremy Balkin
“Feet, what do I need them for
If I have wings to fly.”
Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter
Pies, para qué los quiero
Si tengo alas para volar.
Diary illustration, dated 1953, preceding a foot amputation in August of that year; reproduced on page 415 of Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (1983)
1946 - 1953
“And the flowers sing in D minor
And the birds fly happily.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Spank Thru.
Song lyrics, B-sides and compilation tracks (1989-1993)
“Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”
Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer
Source: Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965-1999
“Love is the space in which one finds the freedom to fly.”
Swami Samarpanananda Monk, Author, Teacher
Junglezen Sheru ( Page 17 )
“I love deadlines. I like the whoosing sound they make as they fly by.”
Douglas Adams book The Salmon of Doubt
Variant: I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
Source: The Salmon of Doubt (2002)
“If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
As quoted in Monk Magazine (1992-10).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
NasserTone (1994) Nasser Ali Albahrani is a director, cinematographer, photographer, producer, & YouTuber, who was born on April 3…
Vice Magazine Article (July 18, 2018)
“The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality
From interview with Malavika Sangghvi
Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist
Original Sin
Song lyrics, Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Mike Tyson (1966) American boxer
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2005-06-12-saraceno-tyson_x.htm
On boxing
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
http://www.flixster.com/actor/leonardo-di-caprio/leonardo-dicaprio-quotes
“What, you're tryin' to be my new wife? What're you, Mariah? Fly through twice!”
Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor
"Superman"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)
“As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.”
George Orwell The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), Part I: England Your England http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/essays/lionunicorn.html <br class="br">"The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941) <br class="br">Source: The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius <br class="br">Context: As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.<br>They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life.
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto XII, lines 95–96 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Milkha Singh (1935) Indian track and field athlete
The Race of My Life: An Autobiography Milkha Singh (2013)
Ayrton Senna (1960–1994) Brazilian racing driver
Interview for Racing is in My Blood, 1991 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIzjx9z_vUg
Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953) Russian artist
quote, c. 1930; https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/constructivism/vladimir-tatlin/letalin/ cited by Christina Lodder, in Russian Constructivism; Yale University Press, Connecticut, 1983, p. 213 <br class="br">The 'Letatlin' was a glider, what Tatlin called an 'air bike', since it would be manually pedaled by the user and contain no motor <br class="br">Quotes, 1926 - 1954
Mary Howitt book The Spider and the Fly
The Spider and the Fly, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
5 <br class="br"> The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915) <br class="br">Context: I am restless. I am athirst for faraway things. My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance. O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute! I forget, I ever forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am bound in this spot evermore.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar
Variant: If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.
Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 8
“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Malcolm X on Zionism (1964)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
"Keep Moving from this Mountain" http://www5.spelman.edu/about_us/news/pdf/70622_messenger.pdf – Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College (11 April 1960) <br class="br">1960s
“Those you cannot teach to fly, teach to fall faster.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky…”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
“Leave not thy nest, thy dam and sire,
Fly back and sing amidst this choir.”
Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) Anglo-American poet
In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659.
“The ordinary society is like a paperweight on you: it won't allow you to fly.”
Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement
Tantra: the Supreme Understanding (1984)
“Autumn wind rises, white clouds fly.
Grass and trees wither; geese go south.”
Emperor Wu of Han (-156–-87 BC) emperor Wu-Ti
The Autumn Wind 127 BC (translated by Arthur Waley), Dictionary of Quotations, Chambers: Edinburgh, U.K, 2005, p. 930
Quote
Adam Mickiewicz book Dziady
Do mamy lecim do mamy! Cóż to, mamo nie znasz Józia? Ja to Józio ja ten samy. A to moja siostra Rózia. My teraz w raju latamy, Tam nam lepiej niż u mamy. Patrz jakie główki w promieniu, Ubiór z jutrzenki światełka, A na oboim ramieniu Jak u motylków skrzydełka, w raju wszystkiego dostatek, Co dzień to inna zabawka, gdzie stąpim wypływa trawka, gdzie dotkniem rozkwita kwiatek. Lecz choć wszystkiego dostatek dręczy nad nuda i trwoga. Ach mamo dla twoich dziatek zamknięta do nieba droga! <br class="br">Part two. <br class="br">Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) http://www.ap.krakow.pl/nkja/literature/polpoet/mic_fore.htm
Volodymyr Melnykov (1951) Ukrainian writer, poet, composer
Kiev’s fall http://imirelnik.io.ua/s1954083/to_my_friends
“A Nemean steed in terror of the fight bears the hero from the citadel of Pallas, and fills the fields with the huge flying shadow, and the long trail of dust rises upon the plain.”
Illum Palladia sonipes Nemeaeus ab arce
devehit arma pavens umbraque inmane volanti
implet agros longoque attollit pulvere campum.
Source: Thebaid, Book IV, Line 136 (tr. J. H. Mozley)
“Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see.”
Exaudi, si digna precor quaeque ipsa furenti
subiceres. orbum visu regnisque carentem
non regere aut dictis maerentem flectere adorti,
quos genui quocumque toro; quin ecce superbi
—pro dolor!—et nostro jamdudum funere reges
insultant tenebris gemitusque odere paternos.
hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum
ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex
huc ades et totos in poenam ordire nepotes.
indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis
unguibus abripui, votisque instincta paternis
i media in fratres, generis consortia ferro
dissiliant. da, Tartarei regina barathri,
quod cupiam vidisse nefas.
Source: Thebaid, Book I, Line 73
“Let no one pay me honor with tears, nor celebrate my funeral rites with weeping. Why? I fly, living, through the mouths of men.”
Nemo me lacrumis decoret neque funera fletu
faxit. Cur? volito vivos per ora virum.
Ennius (-239–-169 BC) Roman writer
As quoted by Cicero in Tusculanae Disputationes, Book I, chapter XV, section 34
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
State of the Union address http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/20486a.htm, , quoted in [1986-03-05, Michael Kilian, Hypersonic flight just a hyperbolic Reagan rhapsody, The Evening Independent, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19860305&id=bmJQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t1kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4836,1112899] <br class="br">1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
"The Paradox of Our Age"; these statements were used in World Wide Web hoaxes which attributed them to various authors including George Carlin, a teen who had witnessed the Columbine High School massacre, the Dalai Lama and Anonymous; they are quoted in "The Paradox of Our Time" at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paradox.asp <br class="br">Words Aptly Spoken (1995)
“The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.”
Talis...mihi uidetur, rex, vita hominum praesens in terris, ad conparationem eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te residente ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumali, accenso quidem foco in medio, et calido effecto caenaculo, furentibus autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium, adveniens unus passeium domum citissime pervolaverit; qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem sequatur, quidue praecesserit, prorsus ignoramus. Unde si haec nova doctrina certius aliquid attulit, merito esse sequenda videtur.
Bede book Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Book II, chapter 13
This, Bede tells us, was the advice given to Edwin, King of Northumbria by one of his chief men, at a meeting where the king proposed that he and his followers should convert to Christianity. It followed a speech by the chief priest Coifi, who also spoke in favor of conversion.
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
“Fly without wings; dream with open eyes.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
Muse II http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/muse-ii/ <br class="br">From the poems written in English
Matthew McConaughey (1969) American actor
" Matthew McConaughey reveals how he lost 38 pounds and ponders a 'Magic Mike' sequel http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/oscar-contender-matthew-mcconaughey-reveals-how-he-lost-38-pounds-and-ponders-a-magic-mike-sequel" on hitfix.com by Gregory Ellwood, November 14, 2012 : On his weight loss for the film The Dallas Buyer's Club.
Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete
On his final record-breaking leap in the long-jump competition.
Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)
Marilyn Frye (1941) feminist philosopher and professor
"Oppression", in Politics Of Reality – Essays In Feminist Theory (1983)
Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter
Believer, written by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley
Song lyrics, Diary of a Madman (1981)
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 148.
“Nothing says inspiration like a plane flying over your head while you're playing.”
Ben Kowalewicz (1975) musician
From "The Diary of Billy Talent":
“My son, I caution you to keep
The middle way, for if your pinions dip
Too low the waters may impede your flight;
And if they soar too high the sun may scorch them.
Fly midway.”
Insruit et natum: Medioque ut limite curras,
Icare, ait, moneo. Ne, si demissior ibis,
Unda gravet pennas; si celsior, ignis adurat.
Inter utrumque vola.
Book VIII, lines 203–206; translation by Brooks More
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
1790s, Letter to the Addressers (1792)
“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
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)