Quotes about fire
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“You can’t judge a book while it’s on fire.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“The artist must learn the difference between the appearance of an object and the interpretation of this object through his medium. The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Attributed to Rodin in: Southwestern Art Vol. 6 (1977). p. 20; Partly cited in: A Toolbox for Humanity: More Than 9000 Years of Thought (2004) by Lloyd Albert Johnson, p. 7
1930s and later

Making love, Art, Learning, Appearance

“I think that one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the camp fire, but are lousy in politics.”

Newt Gingrich (1943) Professor, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

1970s, Address to College Republicans, June 24, 1978

Faith, Boy, Problem, Thinking

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Life, Men

“Social media ensures your business will be firing on all cylinders in the long run.”

Vladimer Botsvadze

Business

“Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.”

Harry Graham (1874–1936) British writer

Tender-Heartedness
Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes (1899)

Heart

“As writers we have to walk in the world in touch with that present, alert part of ourselves, that animal sense part that looks, sees, and notices - street signs, corners, fire hydrants, newspaper stands.”

Natalie Goldberg book Writing Down the Bones

Essay, "Be an animal". p.91
Writing Down the Bones (1986)

World, Sense, Animals, Parting

“I came through the fire, and I am so blessed to be with you today. My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility.”

Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963) Child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972

"In Napa, “napalm girl” Kim Phuc shares story of suffering and forgiveness in Vietnam and beyond" in Napa Valley Register https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/in-napa-napalm-girl-kim-phuc-shares-story-of-suffering-and-forgiveness-in-vietnam-and/article_4f9225b8-0938-5509-b69b-abe13479fd4d.html (24 February 2019)

Hostility, People, Fear, Peace

“I have always said we are not afraid of a ceasefire, but our stance is that if there is a cease‐fire it must go along with a political settlement.”

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1923–2001) president of South Vietnam from 1965–75

"Speech in Saigon" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/25/archives/speech-in-saigon-ceasefire-obstacles-seen-but-president-expects.html (25 October 1972)

“Since Adam and Eve were fired or cast out of heaven, we have all become unemployed from that day forward.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Glances whose gentle fire Bestowed both wound and balm;”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Phillip Vellacott, The Oresteian Trilogy, Penguin 1973 ( Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tuRiOESBVjkC) Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon

“Evil will come to nought and will be completely destroyed. The divine, pure goodness will contain in itself every nature endowed with reason; nothing made by God is excluded from his kingdom once everything mixed with some elements of base material has been consumed by refinement in fire.”

Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) bishop of Nyssa

A Treatise on 1 Corinthians 15.28 https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/in-illud-tunc-et-ipse-filius/

God, Nature, Evil

“Love is a very strange idea. I never know what it is. When you were young it seemed to be all intensity and no opportunity. Later when you did get the opportunity the fire had gone out of it.”

Bernard MacLaverty book Cal

Source: Novels, Cal (1983), Ch.5 - p.140

Love, Idea

“The Prophet gave orders concerning Kinanah to Zubayr, saying, ‘Torture him until you root out and extract what he has. So Zubayr kindled a fire on Kinanah’s chest, twirling it with his firestick until Kinanah was near death. Then the Messenger gave him to Maslamah, who beheaded him.”

Al-Tabari (839–923) influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an

Source: Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 122, See Also Ishaq:515

Death

“[W]hen people talk about climate, I think jobs. Within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, April 2021 Source: 22 April 2021 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/04/22/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-virtual-leaders-summit-on-climate-opening-session/

People, Thinking

“The world recognizes natural immunity. We don't, because everything in this country has to go through the pharmaceutical companies. Natural immunity is the best kind of immunity. We shouldn't fire people who have natural immunity because they don't get the vaccine. We should hire them. Yes?"”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Sen. Chris Coons and Caitlin Flanagan, Natural Immunity, (2021)

People, World, Nature, Country

“I felt an unmanly pity for the beasts we slew, for I fear I don’t really have the killer instinct. I don’t have the starving instinct either, though, and so I fired away.”

Robert Silverberg book The Gate of Worlds

Source: The Gate of Worlds (1967), Chapter 9 “To the Western Sea” (p. 158)

Fear

“Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they.
Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

Source: "Boadicea" (1782)

“The things... which are proper to the understanding no other man is used to impede, for neither fire, nor iron, nor tyrant, nor abuse, touches it in any way. When it has been made a sphere, it continues a sphere.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 41

Way, Understanding

“O the people of faith, when you open inner eyes, you will see beauty of the Beloved, radiant everywhere. In every mirror you see Him. In every color of His manifestation you will notice fire of His love.”

Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1209–1324) Indian Sufi saint

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 271

Love, People, Faith, Beauty

“I've thought of firing myself multiple times.”

David Hunt (actor) (1954) British actor

Patricia Heaton and David Hunt on Entertainment Tonight https://www.fourboysent.com/patricia-heaton-david-hunt-entertainment-tonight/ (2005)

Time

“I soon got a job as a fire-watcher at the Royal Naval Dockyard, the main employer in Plymouth. If anybody asked how many people worked there, the answer was always the same: about ten per cent.”

John Cooper Clarke (1951) English performance poet

Source: I Wanna Be Yours (2020), p. 218.

People

“Do not confuse dreams with wishes. There is a difference. Dreams are where you visualize yourself being successful at what's important to you to accomplish. Now, dreams build convictions because you work hard to pay the price to make sure that they come true. Wishes are are hoping good things will happen to you, but there's no fire in your gut that causes you to put everything forth to overcome all the obstacles. So you have to dream more and never, ever, ever blame somebody else if it doesn't happen. That is in your department.”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

Source: " Dolly Parton Delivers Commencement Address at the University of Tennessee 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOm2lLIOoU&t=6m35s" (at 6m35s), University of Tennessee, Knoxville on YouTube.

Dreams, Hope, Success

“Every obstacle needs to be controlled by the defender through observation and fire. In the case of the challenge of tunneling, control by observation and fire means the IDF being able to disrupt digging activities and preventing the establishment of enabling infrastructure ahead of time.”

Brig. Gen. Eran Ortal (1971)

Source: Dado Center Journal vol. 15, March 2018, https://www.idf.il/media/37490/one-team-on-the-field-may-22-amended-2.pdf

Time

“Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues of fire. Don't let the pen banish you from yourself.”

Gloria E. Anzaldúa Speaking in Tongues

"Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers" (1981)
Source: in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, p. 171

“The way things used to be
not so long ago
when we were young and free.
The way things used to be
not so long ago
you were loving me
every night and every day, strong in every way
passion glowing like a fire, burning with desire.
Whatever happened?”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"The Way Things Used To Be" (song) Gilbert O'Sullivan, "The Way Things Used To Be" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq_p37g6xRU (song on YouTube) Song lyrics

Love, Way, Strong, Passion

“We have room for the man with an honest dream,
With his heart on fire and his eyes agleam;
We have room for the man with a purpose true,
Who comes to our shores to start life anew,
But we haven't an inch of space for him
Who comes to plot against life and limb.
We have room for the man who will learn our ways,
Who will stand by our Flag in its troubled days;
We have room for the man who will till the soil,
Who will give his hands to a fair day's toil,
But we haven't an inch of space to spare
For the breeder of hatred and black despair.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: When Day is Done (1921), No Room for Hate, stanzas 1 and 2

Life, Dreams, Way, Learning

“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.”

A. S. Byatt book Possession

Source: Possession

“It’s scary to think about, but we may finally find unity as a species in self-destruction. The first minute of World War III will render nations, races, and religions meaningless concepts because the first thing to die in nuclear fire will be all our beloved imaginary borders.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

War, World, Religion, Thinking

“The fires of history burn hot and long, but memories of fires do not burn long enough.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 148

History, Memory

“Her eyes held that long-distance prairie look, a look knowing wind and fire and hard times, stuff that either breaks people or leaves them wise.”

Jack Cady book The Night We Buried Road Dog

Source: The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993), p. 495

People, Time

“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)

Way, Support

“There’s no reason someone needs a weapon of war with 100 rounds, 100 bullets, that can be fired from that weapon. Nobody needs that, nobody needs that.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

8 April 2021 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/547162-biden-calls-for-ban-on-assault-weapons-and-high-capacity-magazines 2021, April 2021

War

“In my native land waves of attachment to friends and kin surge,
Hatred for enemies rages like fire,
The darkness of stupidity, not caring what to adopt or avoid, thickens -
To abandon my native land is the practice of a bodhisattva”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

The Heart of Compassion (2006)

Stupidity, Rage

“If I have to start fires, to put out fires, then so be it.”

Josh Duffy (1978) Subject of the documentary THE MAYOR

Film Quotes

“Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets.”

Dmitry Peskov (1967) Russian politician

"Russia shifts stance on hospital bombing that sparked world outrage (Update)" https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/03/10/ukraine-accuses-russia-of-genocide-after-bombing-of-childrens-hospital/, Cyprus Mail, 10 March 2022