Quotes about fly
page 7

Colin Wilson photo
Bill Bryson photo
Harriet Beecher Stowe photo
Steven Erikson photo
Peter Gabriel photo
James Taylor photo
Bruno Schulz photo

“Have you ever noticed flocks of swallows flying past between the lines of certain books, whole verses of trembling, pointed swallows? One must interpret the flights of those birds…”

Bruno Schulz (1892–1942) Polish novelist and painter

“Spring” http://www.schulzian.net/translation/sanatorium/spring01.htm
His father, Books

Thomas Carlyle photo
Robin Williams photo

“I'd like to welcome you the AOPA. There's also aa-AOPA. If this is your first time flying a plane on alcohol, I'd like to welcome ya!”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

Inside the Actors Studio (2001)

Thomas Guthrie photo
Jeremy Clarkson photo
Francois Rabelais photo

“Let us fly and save our bacon.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 55.

Steve Jobs photo

“If you want it, you can fly, you just have to trust you a lot.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

As quoted in El Mundo (2011) http://www.elmundo.es/especiales/tecnologia/steve-jobs/frases.html
2010s

Robert Seymour Bridges photo

“Were I a cloud I'd gather
My skirts up in the air,
And fly I well know whither,
And rest I well know where.”

Robert Seymour Bridges (1844–1930) British writer

Book I, No. 4, The Cliff-Top.
Shorter Poems (1879-1893)

Alexander Smith photo
Larisa Oleynik photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“The "tragic flaw" is not a detail of characterization, a mere "fly in the ointment", but a structural feature of ordinary consciousness.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1970s, From Cliché to Archetype (1970), p.45

“Because their possessions were great, the appeasers had much to lose should the Red flag fly over Westminster. That was why they had felt threatened by the hunger riots of 1932. It was also the driving force behind their exorbitant fear and distrust of the new Russia. They had seen a strong Germany as a buffer against Bolshevism, had thought their security would be strengthened if they sidled up to the fierce, virile Third Reich. Nazi coarseness, anti-Semitism, the Reich's darker underside, were rationalized; time, they assured one another, would blur the jagged edges of Nazi Germany. So, with their eyes open, they sought accommodation with a criminal regime, turned a blind eye to its iniquities, ignored its frequent resort to murder and torture, submitted to extortion, humiliation, and abuse until, having sold out all who had sought to stand shoulder to shoulder with Britain and keep the bridge against the new barbarism, they led England herself into the cold damp shadow of the gallows, friendless save for the demoralized republic across the Channel. Their end came when the House of Commons, in a revolt of conscience, wrenched power from them and summoned to the colors the one man who had foretold that all had passed, who had tried, year after year, alone and mocked, to prevent the war by urging the only policy which would have done the job. And now, in the desperate spring of 1940, with the reins of power at last now firm in his grasp, he resolved to lead Britain and her fading empire in one last great struggle worthy of all they had been and meant, to arm the nation, not only with weapons but also with the mace of honor, creating in every English breast a soul beneath the ribs of death.”

William Manchester (1922–2004) (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) American author, journalist and historian

Source: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone 1932-1940 (1988), p. 688-689

Hillary Clinton photo
H. Rider Haggard photo
J. B. S. Haldane photo

“There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.”

J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) Geneticist and evolutionary biologist

Daedalus or Science and the Future (1923)

Francisco De Goya photo

“The group of sorcerers who form the support for our elegant lady are more for ornament than real use. Some heads are so charged with inflammable gas that they have no need for balloons or sorcerers in order to fly away.”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

a note on an etching-plate, 1795/96; as quoted in Francisco Goya, Hugh Stokes, Herbert Jenkins Limited Publishers, London, 1914, p. 195
Plate 61 of 'Los Caprichos' represents a beautiful lady flying with outstretched arms in butterfly fashion, but supported at the feet by three grotesque creatures crouched in the attitude of the carved misers under monkish stalls. Upon a copy of this plate Goya scrawled this note
1790s

“A fly is a fly, and a flower is a flower, but a hornet is an organization.”

Henry Schriver (1914–2011) American politician

Cows, Kids, and Co-ops

Cassandra Clare photo
Joan Miró photo
Henning von Tresckow photo
Gabriel García Márquez photo
John Holloway photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“What is the world that lies around our own? Shadowy, unsubstantial, and wonderful are the viewless elements, peopled with spirits powerful and viewless as the air which is their home. From the earth's earliest hour, the belief in the supernatural has been universal. At first the faith was full of poetry; for, in those days, the imagination walked the earth even as did the angels, shedding their glory around the children of men. The Chaldeans watched from their lofty towers the silent beauty of night — they saw the stars go forth on their appointed way, and deemed that they bore with them the mighty records of eternity. Each separate planet shone on some mortal birth, and as its aspect was for good or for evil, such was the aspect of the fortunes that began beneath its light. Those giant watch-towers, with their grey sages, asked of the midnight its mystery, and held its starry roll to be the chronicle of this breathing world. Time past on, angels visited the earth no more, and the divine beliefs of young imagination grew earthlier. Yet poetry lingered in the mournful murmur of the oaks of Dodona, and in the fierce war song of the flying vultures, of whom the Romans demanded tidings of conquest. But prophecy gradually sank into divination, and it is a singular proof of the extent both of human credulity and of curiosity, to note the various methods that have had the credit of forestalling the future. From the stars to a tea-cup is a fall indeed”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Literary Remains

Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“I will propose a Highway Safety Act of 1966 to seek an end to this mounting tragedy. We must also act to prevent the deception of the American consumer—requiring all packages to state clearly and truthfully their contents—all interest and credit charges to be fully revealed—and keeping harmful drugs and cosmetics away from our stores. It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention. We must change to master change. I propose to take steps to modernize and streamline the executive branch, to modernize the relations between city and state and nation. A new Department of Transportation is needed to bring together our transportation activities. The present structure—35 government agencies, spending $5 billion yearly—makes it almost impossible to serve either the growing demands of this great nation or the needs of the industry, or the right of the taxpayer to full efficiency and real frugality. I will propose in addition a program to construct and to flight-test a new supersonic transport airplane that will fly three times the speed of sound—in excess of 2,000 miles per hour. I propose to examine our federal system-the relation between city, state, nation, and the citizens themselves. We need a commission of the most distinguished scholars and men of public affairs to do this job. I will ask them to move on to develop a creative federalism to best use the wonderful diversity of our institutions and our people to solve the problems and to fulfill the dreams of the American people. As the process of election becomes more complex and more costly, we must make it possible for those without personal wealth to enter public life without being obligated to a few large contributors. Therefore, I will submit legislation to revise the present unrealistic restriction on contributions—to prohibit the endless proliferation of committees, bringing local and state committees under the act—to attach strong teeth and severe penalties to the requirement of full disclosure of contributions—and to broaden the participation of the people, through added tax incentives, to stimulate small contributions to the party and to the candidate of their choice.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, State of the Union Address (1966)

Abdullah Gül photo
Charles Darwin photo
Chetan Bhagat photo
Richard Bach photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Li Bai photo

“Flying waters descending straight three thousand feet,
Till I think the Milky Way has tumbled from the ninth height of Heaven.”

Li Bai (701–762) Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period

"Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu" (望庐山瀑布), trans. Burton Watson

Samuel Butler (poet) photo

“For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto III, line 243
Source: Hudibras, Part III (1678)

Ernest Hemingway photo

“Orioles fly over tall grasses in second-month weather;
Willows sweep the riverbank, intoxicated with mist.
Children return home in haste after school,
Eager to fly kites when there is yet wind.”

"Living in a Village" (《村居》), in Four-line poems of the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (Translated in English), p. 311 (ISBN 978-7560025827)
Variant translation:
Grass is stretching, birds are dancing in the spring days.
The willow trees wholeheartedly absorb the sun's rays.
My after-school schedule today is unusually tight.
The first business is, of course, in east wind to kite.
"Country Life", as translated by Xian Mao in Children's Version of 60 Classical Chinese Poems, p. 60 (ISBN 978-1468559040)

Ben Jonson photo

“Follow a shadow, it still flies you;
Seem to fly it, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, she denies you;
Let her alone, she will court you.”

Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer

That Women Are But Men's Shadows, lines 1-4
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), The Forest

Samuel Butler (poet) photo

“Where entity and quiddity,
The ghosts of defunct bodies, fly.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto I, line 145
Source: Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)

Elizabeth Rowe photo
Ayn Rand photo
John Major photo
William Wordsworth photo
Han-shan photo
Joseph Conrad photo

“Then, on the slight turn of the Lower Hope Reach, clusters of factory chimneys come distinctly into view, tall and slender above the squat ranges of cement works in Grays and Greenhithe. Smoking quietly at the top against the great blaze of a magnificent sunset, they give an industrial character to the scene, speak of work, manufactures, and trade, as palm-groves on the coral strands of distant islands speak of the luxuriant grace, beauty and vigour of tropical nature. The houses of Gravesend crowd upon the shore with an effect of confusion as if they had tumbled down haphazard from the top of the hill at the back. The flatness of the Kentish shore ends there. A fleet of steam-tugs lies at anchor in front of the various piers. A conspicuous church spire, the first seen distinctly coming from the sea, has a thoughtful grace, the serenity of a fine form above the chaotic disorder of men’s houses. But on the other side, on the flat Essex side, a shapeless and desolate red edifice, a vast pile of bricks with many windows and a slate roof more inaccessible than an Alpine slope, towers over the bend in monstrous ugliness, the tallest, heaviest building for miles around, a thing like an hotel, like a mansion of flats (all to let), exiled into these fields out of a street in West Kensington. Just round the corner, as it were, on a pier defined with stone blocks and wooden piles, a white mast, slender like a stalk of straw and crossed by a yard like a knitting-needle, flying the signals of flag and balloon, watches over a set of heavy dock-gates. Mast-heads and funnel-tops of ships peep above the ranges of corrugated iron roofs. This is the entrance to Tilbury Dock, the most recent of all London docks, the nearest to the sea.”

Hope Point to Tilbury / Gravesend
The Mirror of the Sea (1906), On the River Thames, Ch. 16

Smokey Robinson photo
Jack Buck photo

“Gibson … swings and a fly ball to deep right field. This is gonna be a home run! UNBELIEVABLE! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game, five to four; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't BELIEVE what I just saw!”

Jack Buck (1924–2002) American sportscaster

Calling an injured Kirk Gibson's walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series off Dennis Eckersley.
1980s
Source: Jack Buck's call of Kirk Gibson's home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series on CBS Radio (via WJBC-AM in Bloomington, Illinois) http://www.wjbc.com/media/buck4.MP3

Jacob Bronowski photo
Dick Stuart photo

“Every home run gives me the deepest personal thrill, although I've hit droves. Last year at Lincoln I hit 66, yet it gave me the deepest personal thrill every time I seen that ball flying nine miles out of the park.”

Dick Stuart (1932–2002) American baseball player

As quoted in "The Man Who Hit Too Many Home Runs" https://books.google.com/books?id=UD8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA85&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm9ZTw6JXQAhVH1CYKHazgBPcQ6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Every%20home%20run%22&f=false by Mark Harris, in Life (September 2, 1957), p. 86

Roy Sesana photo
Derek Walcott photo
Vernor Vinge photo
A. J. Cronin photo

“Some temptations cannot be fought. One must close one's mind and fly from them.”

Source: The Keys of the Kingdom (1941), p. 90

Brandon Flowers photo

“A rental car in Savannah, Georgia. In the middle of touring, we had a week off. I have a problem with flying, so instead of going home, my wife came to me and we rented a car and drove around. Just pulled off on some dirt roads…”

Brandon Flowers (1981) American indie rock singer

When asked the craziest place he's ever had Sex.
Joshua (October 2006), "The Same 5 Questions We Always Ask: Brandon Flowers". JANE. Volume and issue unknown:42

Harry Chapin photo
Jeannette Piccard photo

“When you fly a balloon you don’t file a flight plan; you go where the wind goes. You feel like part of the air. You almost feel like part of eternity, and you just float along.”

Jeannette Piccard (1895–1981) American balloonist, scientist, teacher and priest

Quoted in [Sorenson, Paul, Looking Back..., AEM Update, University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, 1998-1999, http://www.aem.umn.edu/info/update/1998-99/Looking.html]

Herbert Giles photo
Robert Graves photo

“Fear in your heart cries to the loving-cup:
Sorrow to sorrow as the sparks fly upward.
The log groans and confesses
There is one story and one story only.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"To Juan at the Winter Solstice" from Poems 1938-1945 (1946).
Poems

Vincent Price photo
James Macpherson photo
Richard Feynman photo
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo
Erich Fromm photo
Robert Charles Wilson photo

“Here at this bridge we'll go our separate ways—
forlorn beside the road, I watch flags fly.”

Đặng Trần Côn (1710–1745) writer

Source: Chinh phụ ngâm, Lines 43–44

Vin Scully photo
Alexander Pope photo

“The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory?
O death! where is thy sting?”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

the last two lines are a quote of 1 Corinthians 15:55 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/1_Corinthians#15:55.
The Dying Christian to His Soul (1712)

Henry James photo

“Well, Benny, now that we know the thing can fly, all we have to do is improve its range a bit.”

Simon Ramo (1913–2016) Father of the ICBM

Ramo (1950s, quotes in: Hantos, Peter. Software Technology Readiness Assessment. (2010).
During a series of key experiments of ballistic missiles in the 1950s at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at which Ramo and Air Force General Bernard Schriever were observers, test rockets kept blowing up on their launch pads. The quote is Ramo's comment, after one missile rose about 6 inches before toppling over and exploding.

Vin Scully photo

“And, (relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley) walked (pinch-hitter Mike Davis) … and look who's comin' up!
(36 seconds of crowd cheering)
All year long, they looked to him to light the fire, and all year long, he answered the demands, until he was physically unable to start tonight—with two bad legs: the bad left hamstring, and the swollen right knee. And, with two out, you talk about a roll of the dice … this is it. If he hits the ball on the ground, I would imagine he would be running 50 percent to first base. So, the Dodgers trying to catch lightning right now!
Fouled away.
He was, you know, complaining about the fact that, with the left knee bothering him, he can't push off. Well, now, he can't push off and he can't land. … 4-3 A's, two out, ninth inning, not a bad opening act!
Mike Davis, by the way, has stolen 7 out of 10, if you're wondering about Lasorda throwing the dice again. 0-and-1.
Fouled away again. … 0-and-2 to Gibson, the infield is back, with two out and Davis at first. Now Gibson, during the year, not necessarily in this spot, but he was a threat to bunt. No way tonight, no wheels.
No balls, two strikes, two out.
Little nubber … foul—and, it had to be an effort to run that far. Gibson was so banged up, he was not introduced; he did not come out onto the field before the game. … It's one thing to favor one leg, but you can't favor two. 0-and-2 to Gibson.
Ball one. And, a throw down to first, Davis just did get back. Good play by Ron Hassey using Gibson as a screen; he took a shot at the runner, and Mike Davis didn't see it for that split-second and that made it close.
There goes Davis, and it's fouled away! So, Mike Davis, who had stolen 7 out of 10, and carrying the tying run, was on the move.
Gibson, shaking his left leg, making it quiver, like a horse trying to get rid of a troublesome fly. 2-and-2! … Tony LaRussa is one out away from win number one. … two balls and two strikes, with two out.
There he goes! Wa-a-ay outside, he's stolen it! … So, Mike Davis, the tying run, is at second base with two out. Now, the Dodgers don't need the muscle of Gibson, as much as a base hit, and on deck is the lead-off man, Steve Sax. 3-and-2. Sax waiting on deck, but the game right now is at the plate.
High fly ball into right field, she i-i-i-is gone!!
(67 seconds of cheering and organ music)
In a year that has been so improbable … the impossible has happened!
And, now, the only question was, could he make it around the base paths unassisted?!
You know, I said it once before, a few days ago, that Kirk Gibson was not the Most Valuable Player; that the Most Valuable Player for the Dodgers was Tinkerbell. But, tonight, I think Tinkerbell backed off for Kirk Gibson. And, look at Eckersley—shocked to his toes!
They are going wild at Dodger Stadium—no one wants to leave!”

Vin Scully (1927) American sports broadcaster

Kirk Gibson's World Series-game-winning home run, October 15, 1988, transcribed from mlb.com archives <nowiki>[</nowiki>excising comments by color commentator Joe Garagiola]

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
David Attenborough photo
A.A. Milne photo
Johnny Mercer photo
Mr. T photo
Brian Clevinger photo
Alan Charles Kors photo
Theognis of Megara photo

“Too many tongues have gates which fly apart
Too easily, and care for many things
That don’t concern them.”

Theognis of Megara (-570–-485 BC) Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC

Source: Elegies, Lines 421-423, as translated by Dorothea Wender.

Dmitry Rogozin photo

“Upon US request, Romania has closed its airspace for my plane. Ukraine doesn't allow me to pass through again. Next time I'll fly on board TU-160.”

Dmitry Rogozin (1963) Russian diplomat

The supersonic Soviet-era TU-160 is Russia's largest strategic bomber.
Рогозин пригрозил прилететь в Приднестровье на бомбардировщике http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/962896/, ntv.ru, May 11, 2014
Russian Diplomat Twitter-Threatens to Fly a Bomber Into Romania http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/05/russian-diplomat-twitter-threatens-to-fly-a-bomber-into-romania/362032/, The wire, May 10, 2014
Original: Румыния по требованию США закрыла моему борту воздушное пространство. Украина снова не пропускает. В следующий раз полечу на Ту-160.

Alan Shepard photo

“The same way people are now paying a couple thousand dollars to fly to other parts of the world, people will be paying $50,000 to spend a weekend on a space station.”

Alan Shepard (1923–1998) American astronaut

Malcolm Howard (April 30, 1987) "The Day the Earth Stood Still - On Film, Anyway", The Record, p. B08.

Nat King Cole photo
Peter Cook photo
Glenn Beck photo

“I could give a flying crap about the political process…. We're an entertainment company.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

Rose
Lacey
Glenn Beck Inc.
Forbes
0015-6914
2010-04-08
2010-04-26
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/entertainment-fox-news-simon-schuster-glenn-beck-inc.html?boxes=Homepagechannels
2010s, 2010

Michelle Phillips photo

“We toured in a Lear jet and that's the only way to fly, baby! Success is a bubble, though, and we knew the wonderful time we were having couldn't possibly last.”

Michelle Phillips (1944) Singer, actress

On the success of the Mamas & the Papas, The National http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/michelle-phillips-talks-about-the-mamas-and-the-papas-legacy (January 5, 2011)

Wilhelm Liebknecht photo