Every bird is known by its feathers. [ Proverb ]
He would gladly fly, but wants feathers. [ Proverb ]
Words and feathers the wind carries away. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye? [ William Shakespeare ]
Of big words and feathers many go to the pound. [ German Proverb ]
Let not him that fears feathers come among wildfowl. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
God gave thy soul brave wings; put not those feathers
Into a bed to sleep out all ill weathers. [ Herbert ]
Cook ruffian, able to scald the devil out of his feathers. [ Proverb ]
If every bird take back its own feathers, you will be naked. [ Proverb ]
He that eats the king's geese shall be choked with the feathers. [ Proverb ]
I like writing with a peacock's quill, because its feathers are all eyes. [ Proverb ]
Flight towards preferment will be but slow, without some golden feathers. [ Proverb ]
Fortune's wings are made of Time's feathers, which stay not whilst one may measure them. [ Lilly ]
Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world; whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers. [ Hare ]
Pride's chickens have bonny feathers, but they are an expensive brood to rear. They eat up everything, and are always lean when brought to market. [ Alexander Smith ]
Women of the world never use harsh expressions when condemning their rivals. Like the savage, they hurl elegant arrows, ornamented with feathers of purple and azure, but with poisoned points.
All the poets are indebted more or less to those who have gone before them; even Homer's originality has been questioned, and Virgil owes almost as much to Theocritus, in his Pastorals, as to Homer, in his Heroics; and if our own countryman. Milton, has soared above both Homer and Virgil, it is because he has stolen some feathers from their wings. [ Colton ]