“Sadly I see
the light fade on my palm:
a firefly.”

— Mukai Kyorai

Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6. According to Hoffman after his sister's, Chine's, death.

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Mukai Kyorai 3

poet 1651–1704

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 16 : The Scroll Marked IX, p. 94.
Context: I will become a firefly and even in the day my glow will be seen in spite of the sun. Let others be as butterflies who preen their wings and yet depend upon the charity of a flower for life. I will be as the firefly and my light will brighten the world.

“You're still shimmering and leading me on… Firefly that's what you are
Burning for me in my darkest hour
"Light breaks where no sun shines"
So shine for me tonight — firefly.”

Greta Gaines

"Firefly" on Greta Gaines (1999) http://www.allmusic.com/album/greta-gaines-mw0000068041; the phrase in quotes is a line from a poem of Dylan Thomas. · Full song at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIEA4mjwRik&spfreload=10 · Live Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbr63vyH-58
Context: I am waking from a dream,
I am choking on a scream,
You were trying to show me something.
But the dark is wide and long,
The gates are closed, the crowd's all gone,
You're still shimmering and leading me on… Firefly that's what you are
Burning for me in my darkest hour
"Light breaks where no sun shines"
So shine for me tonight — firefly.

“Before, beside us, and above
The firefly lights his lamp of love.”

Reginald Heber (1783–1826) English clergyman

Tour Through Ceylon; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 273.
Hymns

“The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.”

Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) U.S. Army general of the army, field marshal of the Army of the Philippines

Audio clip (ogg format)
1950s, Farewell address to Congress (1951)
Context: I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.

“"True love gives true love of the best:
Then take," I cried, "my heart to thee!"
The very heart from out my breast
I plucked, I gave it willingly;
Her very heart she gave to me —
Then died the glory from the west.In the gray light I saw her face,
And it was withered, old, and gray;
The flowers were fading in their place,
Were fading with the fading day.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Stolen Waters (1862)
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

“In the star-filled dark we cook
Our macaroni and eat
By lantern light. Stars cluster
Around our table like fireflies.”

Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982) American poet, writer, anarchist, academic and conscientious objector

In Defense of the Earth (1956), The Great Nebula of Andromeda

“The light of other days is faded,
And all their glories past.”

Alfred Bunn (1796–1860) British businessman, librettist

The Maid of Artois (1836) set to music by Michael William Balfe. Compare: "Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed", Thomas Moore, Oft in the Stilly Night.