Cloud Cuckoo Land refers to an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. ("You're living in Cloud Cuckoo Land, mate.") It hints that the person referred to is naïve, unaware of reality or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief.
The reference comes from The Birds, a play by Aristophanes in which Tereus helps Pisthetairos (which can be translated as "Mr. Trusting") and Euelpides ("Mr. Hopeful") erect a perfect city in the clouds, to be named Cloud Cuckoo Land (Νεφελοκοκκυγία or Nephelokokkygia).
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer used the word (German Wolkenkuckucksheim) in his publication On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in 1813, as well as later in his main work The World as Will and Representation and in other places. Here, he gave it the figurative sense by reproaching other philosophers for only talking about Cloud-cuckoo-land. Fellow German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche refers to the term in his essay "On Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense."
Read more about Cloud Cuckoo Land: Uses in Politics, Other Uses
Famous quotes containing the words cloud, cuckoo and/or land:
“The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead—
There were no birds to fly.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
That it had its head bit off by its young.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 15:4,5.