What are feathers?

Famous quotes containing the word feathers:

“Were she to lose her love, because she had lost
Her confidence in mine, or even lose
Its first simplicity, love, voice and all,
All my fine feathers would be plucked away
And I left shivering.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

“If you keep your feathers well oiled the water of criticism will run off as from a duck’s back.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)

“Too many feathers can sink a boat, and too many knick-knacks can break an axle.”
—Chinese proverb.