#peacock

At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all. ↗

— Baltasar Gracian

#camel #dog #eighty #fifty #forty

How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked. Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’ The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion. ↗

— Toni Morrison

#peacock #vanity

Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#clothed #found #genius #gray #more

To Paradise, the Arabs say, Satan could never find the way Until the peacock led him in. ↗

— Charles Godfrey Leland

#could #find #him #led #never

People are crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet. ↗

— Sa'Di

#crying #feet #himself #his #peacock