Quotes about fire
page 6

“Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Love, Dreams, Reading

“Genius is talent set on fire by courage.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

Courage, Courageous

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”

Robert Frost Fire and Ice

"Fire and Ice" (1923)
General sources

Hate, World, Thinking

“I dream in fire but work in clay.”

Arthur Machen (1863–1947) Welsh author and mystic

Dreams

“Into the the air, into the earth, into the fire, I am with you.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

“No one will forget me. Not my look, not my name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Girl, Forgetting

“There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Life, Anger

“Each night I lie and dream about the one
Who kissed me and awakened my desire
I spent a single hour with him alone
And since that hour, my days are layed with fire.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Secret Circle Booklet

Lie, Dreams, Kiss, Night

“what matters most is how well you walk through the fire”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Moving On

“Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire.”

Kurt Tucholský (1890–1935) German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer

Love, Hate, World

“my father asked.“If you build a tower in Lawrenceville, I will smash it, set it on fire, and salt the ground it stood on.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

“i held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus- Alpo commercials, cute little puppies, fire hydrants.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Happiness, Dogs

“All right, the pendulum isn’t working. Sometimes you need an accelerant to help it.” – Death
“Like gasoline?” – Nick
“Yes, Nick. We’re going to set the book and your pendulum on fire and then use them ’cause we’re just that intelligent.” – Death”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Books, Intelligence, Help

“Half delirious, I slipped my hands around Whit's thick neck. The second Idid he got confident. His mouth moved over mine in a rough, unpracticed, awkward back-and-forth motion, so fast it was as if he was trying to create fire with our lips.”

Kieran Scott (1974) American writer

Source: Invitation Only

Confidence

“What do you think?" I whisper to Peeta. "About the fire?"
"I'll rip off your cape if you'll rip off mine," he says through gritted teeth.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Thinking

“Most men don't seem to get that telling a pissed-off woman to calm down is like throwing gunpowder on a fire.”

~ Liberty Jones”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Men

“Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.”

Patricia A. McKillip book Harpist in the Wind

Source: Harpist in the Wind

Law, Night

“Leo had seen Tia Callida in action; she liked knives, snakes and putting babies in roaring fires. Yeah, definitely let's unleash her rage. Great idea.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Idea, Rage, Baby

“Getting fired,’ Tyler says, ‘is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we’d quit treading water and do something with our lives.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Way, Water

“remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Help

“Asleep she was a painting of a fire. Awake she was the fire itself”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Painting

“Silent white light filled the world. And the righteous and unrighteous alike were consumed in that holy fire.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand (1978), p. 1085

World, Light

“Don't you have somewhere you need to be?" she gritted. "The kitchen? The sewers? The fires of hell?”

Alexandra Ivy (1961) American novelist

Source: When Darkness Comes

Hell

“Seven half-bloods shall answer the call
To storm or fire the world must fall
An oath to keep with a final breath
and foes bear arms to the doors of death”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Death, World

“Clever girl. You play with fire because you want to be burnt.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Girl

“But the Silent Brothers have tried everything to separate Jace from the heavenly fire, and they can't do it. It's in his soul. So what's their plan, hitting Sebastian over the head with Jace until he passes out?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

"Brother Zachariah said pretty much the same thing. Maybe with less sarcasm."
Clary Fray and Jace Herondale, pg. 100-101
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Soul

“Hell was not a pit of fire and brimstone. Hell was waking up alone, the sheets wet with your tears and your seed, knowing the woman you had dreamed of would never come back to you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Seduce Me at Sunrise

Dreams, Hell, Tear

“Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

America, A Prophecy.
1800s
Source: America: A Prophecy/Europe: A Prophecy: Facsimile Reproductions of Two Illuminated Books

Angels

“I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: 100 Love Sonnets

Love, Soul

“You should see my corgis at sunset in the snow. It's their finest hour. About five o'clock they glow like copper. Then they come in and lie in front of the fire like a string of sausages.”

Tasha Tudor (1915–2008) American illustrator and writer

Source: The Private World of Tasha Tudor

Lie

“She's a librarian, Sim said. They're not teachers; don't give you half as much hassle. If there's a fire in the school and I've got to choose who I'm gonna save - a teacher or a librarian - the teacher's gonna burn every time.
(p. 24)”

Keith Gray (1963) American basketball player

Source: Ostrich Boys

School, Teachers, Time

“Great balls of fire. Don't bother me anymore, and don't call me sugar.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

“Love is a fire/It burns everyone/It disfigures everyone/It is the world's excuse for being ugly.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Love, World

“Trust your heart if the seas catch fire and live by love though the stars walk backwards.”

Ben Sherwood book The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Source: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Love, Star, Heart, Sea

“The girl on fire.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Variant: Katniss, the girl who was on fire!
Source: The Hunger Games

Girl

“I don’t know about birds
nor do I know the history of fire.
But I believe that my solitude should have wings”

Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) Argentinian poet

History, Bird, Solitude

“But the name Magnus Bane made him think of a towering sort of figure, with huge shoulders and formal purple warlock’s robes, calling down fire and lightning. Not Magnus himself, who was more of a cross between a panther and a demented elf.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Thinking

“Some kids do drugs. Some kids light stuff on fire. Me, I eat oats.”

Jordan Sonnenblick After Ever After

Source: After Ever After

Light

“There is only one will and that is the Will of Fire. The will that doesn't let you give up”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Dreams

“I guess all that's left is to love the fire.”

Norman Mailer book Advertisements for Myself

Source: Advertisements for Myself

Love

“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Motivation, Light, Chance, Motivational

“He roared at me furiously for ten minutes after he finally managed to put out the sulky and determined fire, calling me a witless muttonheaded spawn of pig farmers-"My father's a wood-cutter," I said- "adOf axe-swinging lummocks!" he snarled.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

“Love is friendship on fire -- anonymous”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Love, Friendship, Valentine's Day

“Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“She would grab whatever she could -a look, a whisper, a moan - to salvage from perishing, to perserve. But time is most unforgivving of fires, and she couldn't, in the end, save it all.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Time

“I want to see the thirst
inside the syllables
I want to touch the fire
in the sound:
I want to feel the darkness
of the cry. I want
words as rough
as virgin rocks.” - Verb.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Feeling, Cry

“And we must fight back! President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that? Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (pp. 105-106)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: "I want to tell the rebels that I am alive. That I'm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women, and children. There will be no survivors. [... ] I want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly if there's a cease-fire, you're deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do. [... ] This is what they do! And we must fight back! [... ] President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?" We're with the camera, tracking to the planes burning on the roof of the warehouse. Tight on the Capitol seal on a wing, which melts back into the image of my face, shouting at the president. "Fire is catching! And if we burn... you burn with us!"

Fight

“Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.”

Robert Jordan The Fires of Heaven

Source: The Fires of Heaven

Death, Hope

“There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams, and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.”

Washington Irving book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

"The Wife".
Source: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)

Heart

“Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Passion

“Only the strongest are put through the fire,' Josiah said. 'And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty.'
'Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends.”

Sharon Shinn book Archangel

Source: Archangel

Beauty, Time

“All I heard was the blood rushing through my ears, and the distant rumble and crackle of the Lake of Fire. (And Khufu scratching himself and grunting, but that was nothing new.)”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Distant

“I suppose like others
I have come through fire and sword,
love gone wrong,
head-on crashes, drunk at sea,
and I have listened to the simple sound of water running
in tubs
and wished to drown”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Love, Water, Sea

“His beauty did not blaze like Will's did in fierce colors and repressed fire, but it had its own muted perfection, the loveliness of snow falling against a silver gray sky.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Beauty, Color, Perfection

“Desire consumes you, it takes you over. You forget yourself completely. All you can think about is the other, the one you desire, your self is just a fire.”

Marilyn French (1929–2009) Novelist, critic

Source: Her Mother's Daughter

Thinking, Forgetting

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

“It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

As quoted in Literature for Today's Young Adults (1997) by Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen, p. 392
Context: It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

Books

“I saw something in his pretty green eyes that I had never seen before: Anger. They were like emerald fire”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Anger

“only you can decide how your fires will affect you. Will you be sanctified or scarred”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: A Woman's Heart

“Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the colour in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty, and your animal spirits, and you will pass for a fine man.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On The Conduct of Life" (1822)

Health, Beauty, Animals, Personality

“Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Speed

“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Problem, Housing

“Remember in elementary school you were told that in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file from smallest to tallest? What is the logic in that? What, do tall people burn slower?”

Stephen King The Dark Tower

Source: The Dark Tower

People, School

“Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying… and every day on the balcony of the sea wings open fire is born and everything is blue again like morning.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Sea

“The first time Calypso came to check on [Leo], it was to complain about the noise.
“Smoke and fire,” she said. “Clanging on metal all day long. You’re scaring away the birds!”
“Oh, no, not the birds!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Bird, Time

“You’ve the presence of a mouse fart in a high wind. Stand aside, and try not to catch fire if I shed sparks of genius.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“Stand aside, and try not to catch fire if I shed sparks of genius.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

President Snow, p. 23
Variant: Katniss Everdeen, you have caused a spark, wich left unattended, may cause a spark that could cause a whole rebelion
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)

Girl

“Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Light

“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”

Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States

Heart, Christmas, Season, Christmas

“You kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire. He had wondered once why love was always phrased in terms of burning. The conflagration in his own veins, now, gave the answer.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love

“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Anger

“O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you;
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

“As soon as the engagement was announced, the Pack Clans converged and shot the idea of a quiet ceremony out of the water and then kept firing at it until it stopped convulsing and died.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Idea, Water

“When the Dead do walk, seek water’s run,
For this the Dead will always shun.
Swift river’s best or broadest lake
To ward the Dead and haven make.
If water fails thee, fire’s thy friend;
If neither guards, it will be thy end.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Old Kingdom series (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr (2001), pp. 359-360.

Water, Dead

“Will interrupted. "Henry," he said, "you're on fire. You do know that, don't you?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“But, like love, fire didn't last.”

Cassandra Clare The Bane Chronicles

Source: The Bane Chronicles

Love

“His name tasted of fire and wings, of curling smoke, of subtlety and strength and the rasping whisper of scales.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

“Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Wisdom, Time, Madness

“Remember, girl on fire,” he says, “I'm still betting on you.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Girl

“we can harness the energy of the winds, the seas, the sun. But the day man learns to harness the energy of love, that will be as important as the discovery of fire.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Love, Learning, Sun, Sea

“And how I watched my little sister become a human torch. Closing my eyes doesn't help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Sister, Help

“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.

Time

“We shall take a star out of the skies and shall set thousands of worlds on fire…”

Cordwainer Smith book The Rediscovery of Man

Source: The Rediscovery of Man

World, Star

“Sky and sea, keep harm from me. Earth and fire, bring… my desire.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Initiation / The Captive Part I

Sea

“But my memories are like a fire in winter—whenever I'm cold I can warm my hands at them.

—Ditta”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: The Joys of Love

Memory, Winter

“I Think it is lost….. but nothing is ever lost nor can be lost.
The body sluggish, aged, cold, the ember left from earlier fires
shall duly flame again.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Age, Thinking

“When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

God, World

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.”

Robert Frost Fire and Ice

"Fire and Ice" (1923)
General sources
Context: Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

World