“my candle burns at both ends it will not last the night but arh my friends and oh my foes it gives a lovely light”

—  Roald Dahl , book Boy

Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.
Misattributed
Variant: My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light.
Source: Boy: Tales of Childhood

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "my candle burns at both ends it will not last the night but arh my friends and oh my foes it gives a lovely light" by Roald Dahl?
Roald Dahl photo
Roald Dahl 103
British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot a… 1916–1990

Related quotes

Edna St. Vincent Millay photo

“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay book A Few Figs from Thistles

Misattributed
Source: Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.

Christopher Hitchens photo

“I have been "in denial" for some time, knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

I.
2010s, 2011, Mortality (2012)

Wallace Stevens photo

“My candle burned alone in an immense valley.
Beams of the huge night converged upon it,
Until the wind blew.”

Wallace Stevens book Harmonium

"Valley Candle"
Harmonium (1923)
Context: My candle burned alone in an immense valley.
Beams of the huge night converged upon it,
Until the wind blew.
Then beams of the huge night
Converged upon its image,
Until the wind blew.

Alice Walker photo

“When life descends into the pit
I must become my own candle
Willingly burning my self
To light up the darkness around me.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
Richard Brautigan photo

“I had a good-talking candle last night in my bedroom. I was very tired but I wanted somebody to be with me, so I lit a candle and listened to its comfortable voice of light until I was asleep.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer
William Blake photo

“I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

William Blake A Poison Tree

A Poison Tree, st. 1
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Robert Burton photo

“I light my candle from their torches.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 2, member 5, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

Christopher Pitt photo

“Arms! arms! my friends, with speed my arms supply,
'Tis our last hour, and summons us to die;
My arms!—in vain you hold me,—let me go—
Give, give me back this moment to the foe.
'Tis well—we will not tamely perish all,
But die revenged, and triumph in our fall.”

Christopher Pitt (1699–1748) English poet

Book II, line 899
The Æneid of Virgil (1740)

Loreena McKennitt photo

“Oh night thou was my guide
Oh night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one
transforming each of them into the other.”

Loreena McKennitt (1957) Canadian musician and composer

The Mask and Mirror (1994), The Dark Night of The Soul

Anna Akhmatova photo

“I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Poem without a Hero (1963)
Context: I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.
With you, who do not come,
I wait the birth of the year.
Dear God!
the flame has drowned in crystal,
and the wine, like poison, burns
Old malice bites the air,
old ravings rave again,
though the hour has not yet struck.

Related topics