Ambrose of Milan

For the soul has flights, as has been said, "Who are these that fly like clouds and like doves with their young?" You see, the soul has spiritual flights that, in a brief moment, circle the whole globe. For the thoughts of wise people are free and, insofar as they rise up from lower to higher shadows, so much and more they fly without the hindrance of any earthly weight, and they are the more carried along by the beating of spiritual wings onto that ethereal and rarefied place; [the soul] despises all worldly things. It soars above the world in its regard for eternal virtues; for justice is above the world, goodness is above the world, wisdom is above the world, even when it is found in the world, it is above the world nevertheless.