Quotes about fly
page 5

Michael Moorcock photo
Tomas Kalnoky photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“We fly the British flag, not these awful things you are putting on tails.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Statement to British Airways when they were changing their tail fin logos (9 October 1997) http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1997/Thatcher-takes-aim-at-British-Airways-tail-logos/id-c5a90438a0daf5287b2a3acd7403fc89
Post-Prime Ministerial

Loreena McKennitt photo
Aron Ra photo
John Gay photo

“The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Act II, scene ii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

George William Russell photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo
Mike Oldfield photo
Anton Mauve photo

“I ordered Major [transport company] tomorrow afternoon 2 o'clock to pack the paintings, I am still completely in all the paintings - as nightmares they are flying around me, now you know as of old how that is, but tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock I am free. I believe there are nice things among them, the drawing has become a little too fat, but there is much good in it, and it is very well-finished. I send to Peacock. The forest with wood hackers, which was hanging above the door of my studio, then the sheep [small composition-sketch of a sheep herd with shepherd] and... I believe you know them all, 7 pieces together, afterwards I have to start working for Arnold & Tripp [art-sellers in Paris], I let those guys wait and that's not right to do..”

Anton Mauve (1838–1888) Dutch painter (1838–1888)

translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Anton Mauve, uit zijn brief:) Morgen middag 2 uur heb ik Majoor [transportbedrijf] besteld om de schilderijen in te pakken ik ben nu nog geheel in alle die schilderijen als nacht merries zijn ze om me heen nu je weet wel van ouds, hoe of dat is maar morgen om 2 uur ben ik vrij. Ik geloof dat er aardige dingen bij zijn, de teekening is wel wat dik geworden, doch veel goeds er in, en erg af ik verzend aan Peacock Het bosch met hout hakkers, dat boven de deur van mijn atelier hing dan de schapen [klein compositieschetsje schaapskudde met herder] en [klein compositieschetsje schapen op bospad] en [klein compositieschetsje met schaapskudde] en [klein compositieschetsje koe?] en [klein compositieschetsje schaapskudde met vliegdennen] en de teekening (schapen uit het bosch komende) ik geloof dat je ze allen kent, 7 stuks te zamen, ik moet daarna ook voor Arnold & Tripp [kunsthandelaars in Parijs] aan de gang, die luitjes laat ik maar wachten en dat mag niet..
In a letter of Mauve from Laren, 27 June 1887 original text of the letter in RKD Archive https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/10, The Hague
1880's

Konrad Lorenz photo
Stephen King photo
Ellen G. White photo
Margaret Thatcher photo
Misty Lee photo
Leonard Mlodinow photo
Theodosius Dobzhansky photo
Bill Engvall photo

“Engvall is in the park flying a kite with his son.
Passerby: Y'all flyin' a kite?
Engvall: Nope, fishin' for birds! Here's your sign.”

Bill Engvall (1957) American comedian and actor

Here's Your Sign Reloaded (2003)
Here's Your Sign

Peter Greenaway photo
Christopher Hitchens photo

“What preoccupies most scientists now is not how much they know compared to 50 years ago, though that is enormous as a difference, but how little they know compared to what they're finding out […] For a few milliseconds really of cosmic time our species has lived on one very very small rock, in a very small solar system that's a part of a fantastically unimportant suburb, in one of an uncountable number of galaxies […] Every single second since the big bang a star the size of our sun has blown up, gone to nothing […] And indeed physicists now exist who can tell you the date on which our sun will follow suit […] We know when it's [the world] coming to an end and we know how it will be, but we know something even more extraordinary which is the rate of expansion of this explosion we're looming through is actually speeding up. Our universe is flying apart further and faster than we thought it was […] Everyone who studies it professionally finds it impossible to reconcile this extraordinarily destructive, chaotic, self-destructive process, to find in it the finger of god, to find in that the idea of a design. And it's not just because we know so little about it, it's because what we know about it that's essential doesn't seem as if it's the intended result brought about by a divine-benign creator who loves every single one of us living as we do on this tiny rock in this negligible suburb of the cosmos.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Christopher Hitchens vs. William Dembski, 18/11/2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctuloBOYolE&t=11m29s
2010s, 2010

Necro (rapper) photo

“I'll break down a lesson
Step by step
Like a booklet for you to sweat
And try to apply
To make yourself fly”

Necro (rapper) (1976) American rapper

Song 12 King Pimp Commandments http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/12-King-Pimp-Commandments-lyrics-Necro/99F7CAB87AFDB14748256BEF000A98DF

John Boyle O'Reilly photo

“They who see the Flying Dutchman never, never reach the shore.”

John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) Irish-born poet and novelist

The Flying Dutchman.

Hans Christian Andersen photo
Sarah McLachlan photo
Emily Dickinson photo
David Orrell photo
Plutarch photo

“Philip being arbitrator betwixt two wicked persons, he commanded one to fly out of Macedonia and the other to pursue him.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

36 Philip
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

Stephen King photo

“If dogs could fly, nobody would go out without an umbrella.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Stephen King (StephenKing) 4 sept 2017 18:28 Tweet https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/904878959766245377

Li Qingzhao photo

“Seeing a guest come, she feels shy;
Her stockings coming down, away she tries to fly.
Her hairpin drops;
She never stops
But to look back.
She leans against the door,
Pretending to sniff at mume blossoms once more.”

Li Qingzhao (1084–1155) Chinese writer

《点绛唇》 ("Rouged Lips"), as translated by Xu Yuan Zhong in Song of the Immortals (New World Press, 1994), p. 227

Roberto Clemente photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

“You're beautiful, like a May fly.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Statement to his future wife Mary Welsh, recalled in her obituaries (26 November 1986)

Joseph Strutt photo
E.E. Cummings photo
Valentino Braitenberg photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Colin Powell photo

“Disobey
Defy
Take your own time
Fly”

"Seize the Vivid Sky" on The Law is an Anagram of Wealth (1993) SPV Record

Francisco de Sá de Miranda photo

“The sun is high — the birds oppress'd with heat
Fly to the shade, until refreshing airs
Lure them again to leave their cool retreat. —
The falls of water but of wearying cares”

Francisco de Sá de Miranda (1491) Portuguese poet

The sun is high — the birds oppress'd with heat, translated by John Adamson in Lusitania Illustrata, Vol. I, 1842

Samuel P. Huntington photo
George Bird Evans photo
Charles Fort photo

“The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another fly wide open.”

Charles Fort (1874–1932) American writer

Source: The Book of The Damned (1919), Ch. 3, part 2 at resologist.net

Bryan Adams photo
Alfred Binet photo
Walter Dornberger photo

“The history of technology will record that for the first time a machine of human construction, a five-and-a-half-ton missile, covered a distance of a hundred and twenty miles with a lateral deflection of only two and a half miles from the target. Your names, my friends and colleagues, are associated with this achievement. We did it with automatic control. From the artilleryman's point of view, the creation of the rocket as a weapon solves the problem of the weight of heavy guns. We are the first to have given a rocket built on the principles of aircraft construction a speed of thirty-three hundred miles per hour by means of rocket propulsion. Acceleration throughout the period of propulsion was no more than five times that of gravity, perfectly normal for maneuvering of aircraft. We have thus proved that it is quite possible to build piloted missiles or aircraft to fly at supersonic speed, given the right form and suitable propulsion. Our automatically controlled and stabilized rocket has reached heights never touched by any man-made machine. Since the tilt was not carried to completion our rocket today reached a height of nearly sixty miles. We have thus broken the world altitude record of twenty-five miles previously held by the shell fired from the now almost legendary Paris Gun.
The following points may be deemed of decisive significance in the history of technology: we have invaded space with our rocket and for the first time--mark this well--have used space as a bridge between two points on the earth; we have proved rocket propulsion practicable for space travel. To land, sea, and air may now be added infinite empty space as an area of future intercontinental traffic, thereby acquiring political importance. This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel....
So long as the war lasts, our most urgent task can only be the rapid perfection of the rocket as a weapon. The development of possibilities we cannot yet envisage will be a peacetime task. Then the first thing will be to find a safe means of landing after the journey through space…”

Walter Dornberger (1895–1980) German general

[Dornberger, Walter, Walter Dornberger, V2--Der Schuss ins Weltall, 1952 -- US translation V-2 Viking Press:New York, 1954, Bechtle Verlag, Esslingan, p17,236]

Alan Shepard photo

“I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.”

Alan Shepard (1923–1998) American astronaut

Marcia Dunn, Associated Press Aerospace Writer (May 1, 1991) "Ex-Astronaut Recalls Thrill of 1st U.S. Space Flight", The Deseret News, p. A1.

Gamal Abdel Nasser photo
H. Rider Haggard photo
Abby Sunderland photo

“Against reason, I thought that the next swell would be it: another rogue wave would roll me again... At that moment, a noise from above caught my attention. And I looked up just in time to see a gigantic white airplane fly by.”

Abby Sunderland (1993) Camera Assistant, Inspirational Speaker and Sailor

Source: Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas (2011), p. 176

Narendra Modi photo
Mirkka Rekola photo

“When you grow to become visible in the world / and build a nest / above your head / there are times when you fly up there / and it is light and swims in the air”

Mirkka Rekola (1931–2014) Finnish writer

From Taivas päivystää (The Sky's on Duty, 1996. 88 Poems, WSOY, 2000, ISBN 951-0-24783-9. Translated by Anselm Hollo).

Fred Astaire photo
Tommy Franks photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Kent Hovind photo

“If the Lord has you saved, you're saved, ok? You can't get out of God's hand. Then this 300 degree below zero ice meteor came flying through the solar system. Some of it broke apart. It made craters on Mercury and craters on the Moon. Four of the planets today still have rings around them. And the rings around these planets are made of rock and ice. Very interesting. Now Walt Brown thinks some of the craters on the Moon were formed when the fountains of the deep broke open and rocks went flying up out of Earth's gravitational pull, drifted around for a while, and clobbered into the Moon. He may be right on that. I don't know but it's interesting. He thinks the comets came from Earth, and water on Mars came from Earth, when the fountains of the deep broke upon. You could read about it for yourself if you would like. The super cold snow would land mostly around the north and south poles because super cold ice is not only affected by the magnetic field, it is easily statically charged. […] As this ice meteor came flying towards the earth it broke apart, pieces would settle in around the poles mostly, causing the earth to wobble for a few hundred years. Or maybe even a few thousand years. The canopy of water overhead collapsed, then it rained 40 days, the water underneath the bottom, under the crust came shooting to the surface, and the water kept going up for 150 days. And everybody drowned. It probably took six or eight months to kill everybody during that flood. We all get the idea, "Well it rained and everybody died first day."”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

No, it took a long time for people to die. People would be running and fighting for higher ground. As that got more and more rare as the water keeps coming up, and up, and up, for 150 days, the water increased. By the way, they are still discovering chunks of ice flying around in space.
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Hovind theory

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël photo

“A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.”

Un homme doit savoir braver l'opinion; une femme s'y soumettre.
Delphine (1802), epigraph
The epigraph is taken from the writings of de Staël's mother, Suzanne Necker.

Osama bin Laden photo

“The pieces of the bodies of infidels were flying like dust particles. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, you would have been very pleased, and your heart would have been filled with joy.”

Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda

As quoted in "The Most Wanted Man in the World" http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html (16 September 2001), Time magazine profile.
2000s, 2001

Bono photo

“A man will rise, a man will fall. From the shear face of love like a fly from the wall”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

"The Fly"
Lyrics, Achtung Baby (1991)

Richard Harris Barham photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Clarence Darrow photo

“Life cannot be reconciled with the idea that back of the universe is a Supreme Being, all merciful and kind, and that he takes any account of the human beings and other forms of life that exist upon the earth. Whichever way man may look upon the earth, he is oppressed with the suffering incident to life. It would almost seem as though the earth had been created with malignity and hatred. If we look at what we are pleased to call the lower animals, we behold a universal carnage. We speak of the seemingly peaceful woods, but we need only look beneath the surface to be horrified by the misery of that underworld. Hidden in the grass and watching for its prey is the crawling snake which swiftly darts upon the toad or mouse and gradually swallows it alive; the hapless animal is crushed by the jaws and covered with slime, to be slowly digested in furnishing a meal. The snake knows nothing about sin or pain inflicted upon another; he automatically grabs insects and mice and frogs to preserve his life. The spider carefully weaves his web to catch the unwary fly, winds him into the fatal net until paralyzed and helpless, then drinks his blood and leaves him an empty shell. The hawk swoops down and snatches a chicken and carries it to its nest to feed its young. The wolf pounces on the lamb and tears it to shreds. The cat watches at the hole of the mouse until the mouse cautiously comes out, then with seeming fiendish glee he plays with it until tired of the game, then crushes it to death in his jaws. The beasts of the jungle roam by day and night to find their prey; the lion is endowed with strength of limb and fang to destroy and devour almost any animal that it can surprise or overtake. There is no place in the woods or air or sea where all life is not a carnage of death in terror and agony. Each animal is a hunter, and in turn is hunted, by day and night. No landscape is beautiful or day so balmy but the cry of suffering and sacrifice rends the air. When night settles down over the earth the slaughter is not abated. Some creatures are best at night, and the outcry of the dying and terrified is always on the wind. Almost all animals meet death by violence and through the most agonizing pain. With the whole animal creation there is nothing like a peaceful death. Nowhere in nature is there the slightest evidence of kindness, of consideration, or a feeling for the suffering and the weak, except in the narrow circle of brief family life.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: The Story of My Life (1932), p. 383

Joseph Lewis photo
Edmund Gosse photo

“Canst thou not wait for Love one flying hour
O heart of little faith?”

Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) Poet, author, and critic

Sonnet, "Dejection and Delay" Bartlet's Quotations 1919 http://www.bartleby.com/100/pages/page814.html

Walter Scott photo
Charlotte Perkins Gilman photo

“Said I, in scorn all burning hot,
In rage and anger high,
"You ignominious idiot,
Those wings are made to fly!"”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

A Conservative.
In this Our World : Poems (1898)

Leigh Brackett photo
Plutarch photo

“Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

51 Alcibiades
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

Kate Bush photo

“All the banners stop waving
And the flags stop flying
And the silence comes over
Thousands of soldiers…”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Aerial (2005), A Sea of Honey (Disc 1)

Gene Wolfe photo

“Very small, child, are the flying days of love, and men and women must catch them when they can, if they are to know love at all.”

"Empires of Foliage and Flower" (1987), first appeared as a limited edition chapbook from Cheap Street, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction

Anton Chekhov photo

“A grimy fly can soil the entire wall and a small, dirty little act can ruin the entire proceedings.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.N. Kanaev (March 26, 1883)
Letters

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Entering a cell, penetrating deep as a flying saucer to find a new galaxy would be an honorable task for a new scientist interested more in the inner state of the soul than in outer space.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Inner Space http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21400/Inner_Space
From the poems written in English

Ashot Nadanian photo
Ted Hughes photo
Tim McGraw photo
Claudia Alexander photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Dilip Sankarreddy photo

“A tired flying bird
Has to perch somewhere to rest.
So should my old knees.”

Dilip Sankarreddy Business professional

Wanderings with Poetry (2007)

Kent Hovind photo

“If it came on the evening news tonight that there were five grizzly bears roaming around Cobb County, do you know what would happen by six o'clock in the morning? They would all be dead. Because every redneck in four states would be out there with a rifle, trying to shoot one, right? And whoever could shoot the biggest one would be a hero. They would have his picture on the front page, "Bubba shot the Grizzly Bear" and saved the village. That is exactly what happened to the dragons. If you could figure out a way to kill a dragon, they would be telling stories about you around the campfire. People killed dragons for meat, because they were a menace, to prove that you were a hero, or to prove that you are superior, in competition for land, or for medicinal purposes. Many ancient recipes call for dragon blood, dragon bones, dragon saliva, why? Gilgamesh is famous for slaying a dragon. A Chinese legend tells about a guy named Yu that surveyed the land of China. It says, that after the Flood he surveyed the land, he divided it off into sections. He built channels to drain water off to sea and make the land livable again. Many snakes and dragons were driven from the marshlands. You know that's normal that if you want to build a city. You have to drive off the dragons, then build your city. It was expected that you have got to drive the dragons away or kill them. Why would the Chinese calendar have eleven real animals: the pig, the duck, the dog, and … the dragon? Why would they put just one "mythical" animal in there? Could it be at the time they that they came up with these animals there were 12 real animals? There is one of the oldest pieces of pottery on Planet Earth. It's a piece of slate from Egypt; the first dynasty of United Egypt. It shows long necked dragons […] Why would they put long necked dinosaurs on pottery 3,800 years ago? Here are two long necked dinosaurs with a sheep in between them in their mouths. Here is a hippo tusk from the twelve century B. C., showing an animal with a long neck, and a long tail. Here's a cylinder seal, showing what appears quite obviously to be a long neck dinosaur. The Bible talks about a fiery flying serpent, in Isaiah 14.”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Creation seminars (2003-2005), Dinosaurs and the Bible

Regina Spektor photo
Richard Watson Gilder photo

“I am a woman—therefore I may not
Call to him, cry to him,
Fly to him,
Bid him delay not.”

Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) editor

A Woman's Thought, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Brooks D. Simpson photo
Thomas Kyd photo

“Evil news fly faster still than good.”

Act I, sc. iii
The Spanish Tragedy (1592)

Charles Symmons photo
Neil Peart photo
Chinua Achebe photo
Henry Kirke White photo
John Townsend Trowbridge photo

“The birds can fly,
An' why can't I?”

John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916) American author

" Darius Green and his Flying-Machine http://books.google.com/books?id=GwsaAQAAMAAJ&q=%22The+birds+can+fly+An'+why+can't+I%22&pg=PA115#v=onepage," Our Young Folks: an illustrated magazine ( March 1867 http://books.google.com/books?id=4eOvXvxRjZYC&q=%22The+birds+can+fly+An'+why+can't+I%22&pg=PA130#v=onepage).

Robert Southwell photo
William Henry Bragg photo

“On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we use the wave theory; on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays we think in streams of flying energy quanta or corpuscles.”

William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) British scientist

in Electrons & Ether Waves : being the twenty-third Robert Boyle lecture, on 11th May 1921, Oxford University Press, 1921, p. 11.