“In Malta, catch a swallow,
For all of the guilty — to set them free.
Wings fill the window,
And they beat and bleed.”

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

“Everyone in me is a bird
I am beating all my wings”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

“I acknowledge the Furies. I believe in them. I have heard the disastrous beating of their wings.”

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) Novelist, journalist

“We need imagination in programming, not sterility; creativity, not imitation; experimentation, not conformity; excellence, not mediocrity. Television is filled with creative, imaginative people. You must strive to set them free.”

Newton N. Minow (1926) United States attorney and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission

“.. I tell you Dain is a splendid catch. I advise you to set your hooks and reel him in.”

Jessica took a long swallow of her cognac. “This is not a trout, Genevieve. This is a great, hungry shark.”

“Then use a harpoon.”

Loretta Chase book Lord of Scoundrels

“My feet are set on the outward trails
And the call of the roistering sea.
My wings are spread on the outbound gales
And the paths that are long and free.”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

“Then they invite her to join the dance and approach the holy rites, and make room for her in their ranks and rejoice to be near her. Just as Idalian birds, cleaving the soft clouds and long since gathered in the sky or in their homes, if a strange bird from some distant region has joined them wing to wing, are at first all filled with amaze and fear; then nearer and nearer they fly, and while yet in the air have made him one of them and hover joyfully around with favouring beat of pinions and lead him to their lofty resting-places.”
Dehinc sociare choros castisque accedere sacris hortantur ceduntque loco et contingere gaudent. qualiter Idaliae volucres, ubi mollia frangunt nubila, iam longum caeloque domoque gregatae, si iunxit pinnas diversoque hospita tractu venit avis, cunctae primum mirantur et horrent; mox propius propiusque volant, atque aere in ipso paulatim fecere suam plausuque secundo circumeunt hilares et ad alta cubilia ducunt.

Statius book Achilleid

“That's how it is sometimes--
God comes to your window,
all bright light and black wings,
and you're just too tired to open it.”

Dorianne Laux (1952) American poet

“Set a thief to catch a thief.”

Callimachus (-310–-240 BC) ancient poet and librarian