“It’s legend now, but legend is the smoke from the fire, and the wood that the fire consumes is the substance.”

—  Tanith Lee , book The Birthgrave

Book Two, Part I “Across the Ring”, Chapter 2 (p. 151)
The Birthgrave (1975)

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 "It’s legend now, but legend is the smoke from the fire, and the wood that the fire consumes is the substance." by Tanith Lee?
Tanith Lee photo
Tanith Lee 124
British writer 1947–2015

Related quotes

Johannes Tauler photo

“It is something like fire working on wood; the heat draws out all the moisture, the greenness and the heaviness. It grows warm, begins to glow, becomes more like the fire itself. As the wood slowly takes on the likeness of fire, the dissimilarity between the two grows less until finally, in a rapid movement, the fire takes from the wood its own substance; the wood becomes fire and loses at the same time its separateness and inequality, since it has become fire. No longer merely like fire, it has become one substance with the fire. Likeness is lost in union.”

Johannes Tauler (1300–1361) German theologian

Sermons, From Our Daily Bread

Michael Moorcock photo

“I now know that legends in themselves have no power. The power comes from the uses that the living make of the legend. The legends merely represent an ideal.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Book 3, Chapter 2 “The Destruction in the Fortress” (p. 260)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Om Swami photo

“Just like two pieces of wood can be rubbed together to produce fire and the same fire later consumes them both, intellect and concentration support the contemplative meditation. But when the fire of insight arises, it consumes both intellect and concentration, giving way to pristine awareness.”

Om Swami (1979) Indian mystic

A Million Thoughts (2016)

Ian McDonald photo

“Legends should stay legends; otherwise they just become history, when the natural course of things is the other way around, from history to legend.”

Ian McDonald book The Dervish House

Source: The Dervish House (2010), Ch. 3, §5 (p. 109)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“The suffering man ought really 'to consume his own smoke'; there is no good in emitting smoke till you have made it into fire, — which, in the metaphorical sense too, all smoke is capable of becoming!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Man of Letters

Bhagawan Nityananda photo

“Just as camphor is consumed by the flames of fire, so also, mind must be consumed by soul-fire.”

Bhagawan Nityananda (1897–1961) Hindu guru and saint

4
The Chidakasha Gita (1927)

Lauren Bacall photo

“She's not a legend. She's a beginner. What is this 'legend'? She can't be a legend at whatever age she is. She can't be a legend, you have to be older.”

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American actress, model

As quoted in numerous reports of a response she made to a question by Jenni Falconer during joint interview sessions http://film.guardian.co.uk/venice/story/0,15051,1300356,00.html with Nicole Kidman at the Venice Film Festival (8 September 2004) She, Kidman and others have indicated that the remarks were inaccurately quoted and taken out of context. (see also the Larry King interview)

Georgy Zhukov photo

“There's no smoke without fire.”

Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) Marshal of the Soviet Union

Quoted in "Stalin's Generals" - Page 359 - by Harold Shukman - History - 2002

Jorge Luis Borges photo

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”

Jorge Luis Borges book Other Inquisitions

"A New Refutation of Time" (1946) [" Nueva refutación del tiempo http://www.monografias.com/trabajos11/filoylit/filoylit.shtml"]
Variant translations:
And yet, and yet... Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are obvious acts of desperation and secret consolation. Our fate (unlike the hell of Swedenborg or the hell of Tibetan mythology) is not frightful because it is unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and ironclad. Time is the thing I am made of. Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.
Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
Other Inquisitions (1952)
Source: Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings
Context: Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.
Context: And yet, and yet... Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.

Related topics