Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.
—James Dickey (1923–97) American Poet, Writer
Birds of a color fly to the same place.
—Welsh Proverb
Flying birds have no master.
—French Proverb
One could sit still and look at life from the air; that was it. And I was conscious again of the fundamental magic of flying, a miracle that has nothing to do with any of its practical purposes – speed, accessibility, and convenience – and will not change as they change. Looking down from the air that morning, I felt that stillness rested like a light over the earth. What motion there was took on a slow grace, like slow-motion pictures which catch the moment of outstretched beauty that one cannot see in life itself, so swiftly does it move.
And if flying, like a glass-bottomed bucket, can give you that vision, that seeing eye, which peers down to the still world below the choppy waves – it will always remain magic.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Why fly? Simple. I’m not happy unless there’s some room between me and the ground.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Never Forget!- The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Falling hurts least those who fly low.
—Chinese Proverb
Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear end collision.
—James Thurber
Flying without feathers is not easy; my wings have no feathers.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
—Chinese Proverb
The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
The roast duck can fly no more.
—Chinese Proverb
Flying. Whatever any other organism has been able to do man should surely be able to do also, though he may go a different way about it.
—Samuel Butler
Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?—it is the same the angels breathe.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
God made low branches for birds that cannot fly so well.
—Turkish Proverb
I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder.
—Bill Maher (b.1956) American Comedian, TV Personality, Social Critic, Author, Actor
Before you can learn to fly, you must first learn to walk. You cannot fly into flying.
—Unknown
There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
No matter how high a bird can fly, it still has to look for food on the ground.
—Danish Proverb
Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.
—Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) American Aviator
I wish I could write well enough to write about aircraft. Faulkner did it very well in Pylon but you cannot do something someone else has done though you might have done it if they hadn’t.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that; so it goes on flying anyway.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding among provincial officials far removed from one another or from the officials at the seat of government.
—Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003) First Lady of the Republic of China
To fall is not painful for those who fly low.
—Chinese Proverb
There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
The desire to reach for the sky runs deep in our human psyche.
—Cesar Pelli (1926–2019) Argentinean-born American Architect