Pie in the sky
Meaning
A delightful but unrealistic or impossible plan, hope, or promise for the future.
Origin
The phrase "pie in the sky" was powerfully popularized by the early 20th-century labor movement in the United States. In 1911, the Swedish-American labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill penned the satirical anthem "The Preacher and the Slave" for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). His lyrics mocked religious promises of heavenly rewards that distracted the working poor from their earthly struggles, famously declaring, "You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die." This potent imagery quickly established "pie in the sky" as a vivid metaphor for any delightful but ultimately unattainable promise or unrealistic future hope, especially those used to pacify the discontented.
Examples
- His grand scheme for a global network of underwater hotels was nothing more than pie in the sky.
- While winning the lottery sounds wonderful, for most people, it's just pie in the sky.