Fire Quotes - Page 27

• I've wandered over many lands, and reaped withal no fruit, I've laid my pride of rank aside, and pressed my baffled suit, At stranger boards, like shameless crow, I've eaten bitter bread, But fierce Desire, that raging fire, still clamours to be fed.

  Bhartrhari

  Pride, Land, Crow

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• If hell has no answer for the questioning dead, it is not because it refuses to answer (for rigorous, alas, in observance, is the imperishable fire), but it is because hell has nothing to say, will say nothing eternally.

  Georges Bernanos

  Answers, Hell, Questioning

  "Joy". Book by Georges Bernanos, 1929.

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.

  Aristophanes

  Women, Untamed, Would Be

  Aristophanes (2006). “Complete Plays of Aristophanes”, p.367, Bantam Classics

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• I played with fire, did counsel spurn, Made life my common stake; But never thought that fire would burn, O that a soul could ache.

  Henry Vaughan

  Soul, Common, Made

  1650 Silex Scintillans, 'The Garland'.

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• When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again.

  Ramakrishna

  Ignorance, Men, Broken

  Ramakrishna (1965). “Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna: the most exhaustive collection of them, their number being 1120”

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• What on earth is modern exegesis up to? Oh, little lazy one! Some red wine and up! Off you go, brandishing your fork, stripped of Ophelia's useless ornaments, fire in your large nostrils, out to rake the muck of metaphors.

  Louis Aragon

  Wine, Lazy, Ornaments

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• To tell the truth, the chariot was an astonishing sight to behold, because I had polished the steel of my flying house so carefully that it reflected the sunlight on all sides. It was so bright and dazzling that I thought, myself, that I had been carried away in a chariot of fire.

  Cyrano de Bergerac

  Sight, House, Flying

  "The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon". Book by Cyrano de Bergerac, 1657.

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• The dead are happy, having no desire. I rise and fall, and rise and fall again, Something is in me, famishing for bread, Baffled and unappeasable as fire.

  Arthur Symons

  Fall, Desire, Bread

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

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• Evolution can't be predicted, Julian used to tell me; it's a scattershot business; it fires, but it doesn't aim.

  Robert Charles Wilson

  Evolution, Used, Aim

  Robert Charles Wilson (2009). “Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America”, p.80, Macmillan

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• To fire a bullet into the heart or brains of one's fellow man even a fellow man striving to do the same to you creates what might be called an unassimilable memory: a memory that floats on daily life the way an oil stain floats on rainwater. Stir the rain barrel, scatter the oil into countless drops, disperse it all you like, but it will not mix; and eventually the slick comes back, as loathsomely intact as it ever was.

  Robert Charles Wilson

  Memories, Rain, Heart

  Robert Charles Wilson (2009). “Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America”, p.176, Macmillan

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