Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather!

-Allingham,William
  'The Fairies'.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

-Angelou, Maya originally MayaJohnson
  Gather Together In My Name, ch.6.

I will go stark: and let my meanings show Clear as a milk-white feather in a crow Or a black stallion on a field of snow.

-Campbell, (Ignatius) Roy Dunnachie
  'A Good Resolution'.

Jolly boating weather And a hay-harvest breeze, Blade on the feather, Shade off the trees; Swing, swing together, With your body between your knees.

-Cory,William originally  WilliamJohnson
  'Eton Boat Song'.

What is the odds so long as the fire of soul is kindled at the taper of conwiviality, and the wing of friendship never moults a feather!

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^1  Dick Swiveller. The Old Curiosity Shop, ch.2.

Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!

-Ginsberg, Allen
   Journalentry, Oct. Collected in Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties,'NewYork City'.

It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot.

-Hughes,Ted (Edward James)
  'Hawk Roosting'.

Asthe eaglewas killed by thearrow wingedwith its own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

-Keller, Helen Adams
  In the American Magazine, Dec.

A pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

-Lamb, Charles
  Of puns. Last Essays of Elia,'Popular Fallacies', no.9.

A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod; An honest man's the noblest work of God.

-Pope, Alexander
  An Essay on Man, epistle 4, l.247^8.

If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, 'a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on'.

-Springsteen, Bruce
Collected in Gems from Spurgeon (1859).

'He's supposed to have a particularly high-class style: ''Feather footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole''†would that be it?' 'Yes,'said the Managing Editor.'That must be good style.'

-Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn
  Scoop, bk.1, ch.1.