“Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through.”
A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
Context: Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through. But in Oratory the greatest Art is to hide Art.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jonathan Swift141
Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745Related quotes
“A close mouth catches no flies.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Solon, 10.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
“To open the window and let a wasp out of the room. Ah, is this not happiness?”
Jin Shengtan (1610–1661) Chinese writer
"Thirty-three Happy Moments"
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Whether Soldiers Can Also Be in a State of Grace (1526)
“A drop of honey can catch more flies than a gallon of gall.”
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), p. 143 (in 1998 edition)
“A jealous wife is like a hornets’ nest in your mattress.”
Robert Jordan A Crown of Swords
Old saying in Randland
A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Life of Romulus
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.”
Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer
Everything About It Is a Love Song
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)
Context: I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.
If I ever come back as a tree, or a crow, or even the wind-blown dust; find me on the ancient road in the song when the wires are hushed. Hurry on and remember me, as I'll remember you. Far above the golden clouds, the darkness vibrates.
The earth is blue.
And everything about it is a love song. Everything about it.