Fire Quotes - Page 16

• To me this question whether liberty is a good or a bad thing appears as irrational as the question whether fire is a good or a bad thing. It is both good and bad according to time, place, and circumstance, and a complete answer to the question, In what cases is liberty good and in what cases is it bad? would involve not merely a universal history of mankind, but a complete solution of the problems which such a history would offer.

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Liberty, Answers, Problem

  "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". Book by James Fitzjames Stephen, Ch.2, 1873-1874.

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• The religion of Christianity Is mixed of sweetness and cruelty Reject this Sweetness, for she wears A smoky dress out of hell fires.

  Stevie Smith

  Dresses, Hell, Christianity

  Arthur C. Rankin, Stevie Smith (1985). “The poetry of Stevie Smith, "little girl lost"”, Barnes & Noble Imports

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• As in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.

  Robert Southwell

  Heart, Eye, Winter

  "The Burning Babe" l. 1 (ca. 1590)

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• My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns;Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls.

  Robert Southwell

  Blow, Love Is, Men

  Robert Southwell (1856). “Poetical Works”, p.98

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• Is our time up and on to the next fire / Got my fingers burnt and cut into the wire.

  Kim Wilde

  Cutting, Wire, Next

  Song: Shangri-La, 1984

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• I made a lot of exits through side doors, down fire escapes or over rooftops. I abandoned more wardrobes in the course of five years than most men acquire in a lifetime. I was slipperier than a buttered escargot.

  Frank Abagnale

  Men, Doors, Years

  "Catch Me if You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake". Book by Frank W. Abagnale, 2002.

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• The immortal mind, superior to his fate, amid the outrage of external things, firm as the solid base of this great world, rests on his own foundation. Blow, ye winds! Ye waves! ye thunders! roll your tempests on! Shake, ye old pillars of the marble sky! Till at its orbs and all its worlds of fire be loosen'd from their seats; yet still serene, the unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck; and ever stronger as the storms advance, firm through the closing ruin holds is way, when nature calls him to the destin'd goal.

  Mark Akenside

  Fate, Blow, Wind

  Mark Akenside, “The Pleasures Of Imagination: Book The Second”

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• Hence when lightning fires the arch of heaven, and thunders rock the ground, when furious whirlwinds rend the howling air, and ocean, groaning from his lowest bed, heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky; amid the mighty uproar, while below the nations tremble, Shakespeare looks abroad from some high cliff, superior, and enjoys the elemental war.

  Mark Akenside

  War, Ocean, Rocks

  Mark Akenside (1808). “The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside ...: Collated with the Best Editions”, p.91

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• I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire.

  William Shakespeare

  Thinking, Oil, Devil

  William Shakespeare (2014). “Arden Shakespeare Complete Works”, p.885, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• We must frankly confess, then, using our empirical common sense and ordinary practical prejudices, that in the world that actually is, the virtues of sympathy, charity, and non-resistance may be, and often have been, manifested in excess. ... You will agree to this in general, for in spite of the Gospel, in spite of Quakerism, in spite of Tolstoi, you believe in fighting fire with fire, in shooting down usurpers, locking up thieves, and freezing out vagabonds and swindlers.

  William James

  Believe, Fighting, Common Sense

  William James (1985). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.284, Harvard University Press

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• it is not wise to keep the fire going under a slander unless you can get some large advantage out of keeping it alive. Few slanders can stand the wear of silence.

  Mark Twain

  Wise, Silence, Alive

  Mark Twain, Harriet Elinor Smith (2012). “Autobiography of Mark Twain: Reader's Edition”, p.392, Univ of California Press

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• If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

  Martin Luther

  Art, Doctors, Overcoming

  "To the Christian Nobility of the German States" by Martin Luther, 1520.

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• A fiery shield is God's Word; of more substance and purer than gold, which, tried in the fire, loses nought of its substance, but resists and overcomes all the fury of the fiery heat; even so, he that believes God's Word overcomes all, and remains secure everlastingly, against all misfortunes; for this shield fears nothing, neither hell nor the devil.

  Martin Luther

  Believe, Devil, Gold

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1857). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.19

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• Good leaders must know how to reward those who succeed and know when to retrain, move, or fire ineffective staff.

  Colin Powell

  Leadership, Moving, Succeed

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• We have to create strength where it did not exist before; we have to change our natures, and become new men with new hearts, to be born again. We need a nucleus of men in whom the Shakti is developed to its uttermost extent, in whom it fills every corner of the personality and overflows to fertilise the earth. These, having the fire of Bhawani in their hearts and brains, will go forth and carry the flame to every nook and cranny of our land.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Heart, Men, Flames

  "Bhawani Mandir (1905)". "India's Rebirth : A Selection from Sri Aurobindo's Writings, Talks and Speeches", 3rd edition. Book by Sri Aurobindo, 2000.

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• By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many douceurs in being a sort of chaperon , for I am put on the sofa near the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.

  Jane Austen

  Wine, Bye, Drink

  Jane Austen (2008). “Letters of Jane Austen: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.169, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• If God in his wisdom have brought closeThe day when I must die,That day by water or fire or airMy feet shall fall in the destined snareWherever my road may lie.

  Dante Gabriel Rossetti

  Lying, Fall, Feet

  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The King's Tragedy James I. Of Scots.—20th February 1437”

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• Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats.

  Anne Bradstreet

  Anger, Wind, Water

  Anne Bradstreet, Jeannine Hensley (1967). “The works of Anne Bradstreet”, Belknap Press

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• Would you please publish the enclosed manuscript or return it without delay, as I have other irons in the fire.

  Elinor Glyn

  Iron, Delay, Return

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• A terrible violence of creation,A flash into the burning heart of the abominable;Yet if we wait, unafraid, beyond the fearful instant,The burning lake turns into a forest pool,The fire subsides into rings of water,A sunlit silence.

  Theodore Roethke

  Heart, Lakes, Water

  Theodore Roethke (1975). “The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke”, Anchor Books

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• I believe in one secret and ineffable Lord; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name Chaos, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breathes. And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name Babalon.

  Aleister Crowley

  Mother, Stars, Father

  "Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass". Book by Aleister Crowley, www.scarletwoman.org. 1913.

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• Well I've seen travel in many waysI've traveled in cars and old subwaysBut in Birmingham some people choseTo fly down the street from a fire hose.Doin' some hard travelin'...from hydrants of plenty.

  Phil Ochs

  People, Car, Birmingham

  Song: Talking Birmingham Jam

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• I think continually of those who were truly great . Who, from the womb, remembered the soul 's history Through corridors of light where the hours are suns , Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition Was that their lips, still touched with fire , Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song .

  Stephen Spender

  Song, Ambition, Thinking

  Stephen Spender (2015). “Selected Poems of Stephen Spender”, p.23, Faber & Faber

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• Under the olive trees, from the ground Grows this flower, which is a wound. It is easier to ignore Than the heroes' sunset fire Of death plunged in their willed desire Raging with flags on the world's shore.

  Stephen Spender

  Flower, Hero, Sunset

  Stephen Spender (2015). “Selected Poems of Stephen Spender”, p.54, Faber & Faber

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• Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields, See how these names are fêted in the waving grass And by the streamers of the white cloud And whispers of the wind in the listening sky. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre. Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

  Stephen Spender

  Heart, Air, Wind

  'I think continually of those who were truly great' (1933)

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