Harry,

'The owl of Minerva sets flight at dusk'

Means that wisdom tends to come with old age.

G.W.F. Hegel.  Probably in his 'Phenomenology of the Spirit' ca 1819
- but I don't have the page number.

Of course he might not have been the first to say that.

Regards,

Robert  Kruszynski

At 08:49 AM 3/18/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I have checked in the Penguin and Oxford dictionaries of quotations and in
>Brewer's, but have not found the reference. The owl is classically associated
>with Minerva and I have seen the quotation used before; the implication is
that
>one sees better in hindsight (at the close of the day) than in the midst of
>events. Please note that the owl is often used in military heraldry to denote
>learning of an allegedly high order; the Canadian Land Forces Command and
Staff
>College, for example, uses an owl as the principal figure in its crest.
>
>My colleagues and I suspect the quotation is from one of the English romantic
>poets, perhaps Tennyson, who made other references to owls. I will keep
>looking.
>
>Harry Needham
>Canadian War Museum
>
>
From :  Robert  Kruszynski,         Human  Origins  Group,
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