
The Crisis No. VII
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
As quoted in Richard Pipes, The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive (1996), p. 69.
Attributions
The Crisis No. VII
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Variant: Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Source: Jingo
“[Whoever did this] must be exterminated, and they must be exterminated by us.”
On the perpetrators of the Kansas City Massacre of 1933, as quoted in Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough (2004: Penguin), p. 51.
“I felt the exultancy of a man just released from slavery and ready to set the universe on fire.”
"Lie Down In Darkness", This Quiet Dust and Other Writings (1982)
Context: When, in the autumn of 1947, I was fired from the first and only job I have ever held, I wanted one thing out of life: to become a writer. I left my position as manuscript reader at the McGraw-Hill Book Company with no regrets; the job had been onerous and boring. It did not occur to me that there would be many difficulties to impede my ambition; in fact, the job itself had been an impediment. All I knew was that I burned to write a novel and I could not have cared less that my bank account was close to zero, with no replenishment in sight. At the age of twenty-two I had such pure hopes in my ability to write not just a respectable first novel, but a novel that would be completely out of the ordinary, that when I left the McGraw-Hill Building for the last time I felt the exultancy of a man just released from slavery and ready to set the universe on fire.
Of Anger.
The Holy State and the Profane State (1642)
25 October 1941.
Disputed, (1941-1944) (published 1953)
“To set a forest on fire, you light a match. To set a character on fire, you put him in conflict.”
Source: How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling
The “cause” was two-fold: abolition of slavery and establishment of women’s rights, especially suffrage. Some abolitionists and feminists thought it essential to win the support of clergymen.
Letter 15 (October 20, 1837).
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman (1837)
The Writings of Marguerite Bourgeoys, p. 204