The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.
The hand cannot reach higher than does the heart.
As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing.
Everywhere on the Continent, the tourist is looked upon as a bird to be plucked, and presently the bird himself feebly comes to regard plucking as his proper destiny and abjectly holds out his wing so long as there is a feather left on it.