“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Variant: A kite flies against the wind, not with it.
“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind. Even a head wind is better than none. No man ever worked his passage anywhere in a dead calm.”
John Neal, as quoted in The Journal of Education for Upper Canada Vol. III (1850)
Misattributed
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Lewis Mumford75
American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology,… 1895–1990Related quotes
“Strong men are made by opposition; like kites they go up against the wind.”
Frank Harris (1856–1931) Irish journalist and rogue
Oscar Wilde ([1916] 1997) ch. 6, p. 59.
“As if the man had fixed his face,
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky!”
Part I, stanza 16.
Peter Bell (1798)
L. Frank Baum book Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz, Ch. 7 : Polychrome's Pitiful Plight
Plate on the back of Tik-Tok
Later Oz novels
“A dead man in Spain is more alive than a dead man anywhere in the world.”
Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director
Un muerto en España está más vivo como muerto que en ningún sitio del mundo.
"Theory and Play of the Duende" from A Poet in New York (1940)
Dick Gregory (1932–2017) American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic
The Garden of Proserpine.
Undated
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Great Place
Essays (1625)
Context: It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honor amends. For honor is, or should be, the place of virtue and as in nature, things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor, fairly and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them, and rather call them, when they look not for it, than exclude them, when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible, or too remembering, of thy place in conversation, and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, When he sits in place, he is another man.
“There’s a day to deny and a day to decry
and a day for the man the wind at his heels!”
Mike Scott (1958) songwriter, musician
"The Man With The Wind At His Heels" · Video at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWrkveqkkQk <br class="br">Book of Lightning (2007) <br class="br">Context: There’s a day to ride thumb on a thunderhead<br>There’s a day to make fantasy real<br>There’s a day to deny and a day to decry<br>and a day for the man the wind at his heels!