Quotes about smoking
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Allan Pease book The Definitive Book of Body Language

Source: The Definitive Book of Body Language

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night (1960)

Life, God, Children, Faith

“Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke and a story's just a story”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

“I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I suggest you look around at the world in which we live and shut your fuckin' mouth.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

World

“NOW, MY BRETHREN!" Poseidon's voice was so loud I wasn't sure if I was hearing it from the smoke image or from all the way across town. "STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Way

“Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoked from battle. (Carter says I shouldn’t mention that his pink boxer shorts were showing, but they were!)”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Theta blew out another plume of cigarette smoke. “Not interested. Love’s messy, kiddo. Let those other girls get moony-eyed and goofy. Me? I got plans.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Love, Girl

“Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the links

Source: The Murder on the Links

Girl, Fashion, Patience, Night

“It wasn't sarcasm." Graves blew out a cloud of acrid smoke. "It was pointing out a fallacy in your logic, babe."
Anna's jaw actually dropped. For a moment, I wasn't sure if I should laugh or push him out of the room. Way to go, Graves.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Jealousy

Way

“So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Home

“Wrapped in a police blanket, I watched the rain and smoked one black cigarette after another…”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

“I smoke to fill the potholes in my soul”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Soul

“These flowers will be rotten in a couple hours. Birds will crap on them. The smoke here will make them stink, and tomorrow a bulldozer will probably run over them, but for right now they are so beautiful.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Beauty, Flowers, Bird

“Man, it was a good thing vampires didn't get cancer. Lately he'd been chain-smoking like a felon.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

“It's just a penis, right? Probably no worse for you than smoking.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

“The moment she was cursed, I lost her. Once it wears off- soon- she will be embarrassed to remember things that she said, things she did, things like this. No matter how solid she feels in my arms, she is made of smoke.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

Feeling

“That’s pretty much how we get through our own lives, watching television. Smoking crap. Self-medicating. Redirecting our attention. Jacking off. Denial.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

“I have learned to smoke because I need something to hold onto.”

Elizabeth Smart (1913–1986) Canadian poet and novelist

Source: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

Learning

“Recycling and speed limits are bullshit. They're like someone who quits smoking on his deathbed.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Speed

“My lungs are thick with the smoke of your absence.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Where Water Comes Together with Other Water: Poems

“By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

Soul, Star, Night

“If there is a smoke, there is a fire, the saying goes, That is quite true, but one should find what the fire is, and who lit it.”

Tariq Ramadan (1962) Swiss muslim scholar

Source: What I Believe

“She was disappearing a little more each day, so thin, so frail, a wisp of smoke. One day she would surely vanish altogether, and there was no way to stop her.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Green Heart

Way

“Everybody in recovery smokes. If you don't like smoking, don't even bother trying to get sober. Just stay drunk.”

Augusten Burroughs Possible Side Effects

Source: Possible Side Effects

“Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Home, Heart

“It's safe to assume that by 2085 guns will be sold in vending machines but you won't be able to smoke anywhere in America.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

“Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Fight

“we
sat there
smoking
cigarettes
at
5
in the morning.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Pleasures of the Damned

“Table talk and Lovers' talk equally elude the grasp; Lovers' Talk is clouds, Table Talk is smoke."

Les Miserables”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Lovers

“Alexander smoked and watched her from his tree stump bench. What are you doing? she would ask him.

Nothing, he would reply. Nothing but growing my pain into madness.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Pain, Tree, Madness

“Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally on our planet, serves a thousand different functions, all of them positive. To make marijuana against the law is like saying that God made a mistake. Like on the seventh day God looked down, "There it is. My Creation, perfect and holy in all ways. Now I can rest. [Gives shocked expression] Oh my Me! I left fuckin' pot everywhere. I should never have smoked that joint on the third day. Hehe, that was the day I created the possum. Still gives me a chuckle. But if I leave pot everywhere, that's gonna give people the impression they're supposed to … use it. Now I have to create Republicans."”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

" … and God wept", I believe is the next part of that story.
Chicago '91 (1991)

God, People, Law, Way

“Akhlys lunged at Percy, and for a split second he thought: Well, hey, I’m just smoke. She can’t touch me, right?
He imagined the Fates up in Olympus, laughing at his wishful thinking: LOL, NOOB!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Fate, Imagination, Thinking

“Smoking cures weight problems, eventually.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Problem

“Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a
commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps.”

Abbie Hoffman book Steal This Book

Introduction, p. v.
Source: Steal This Book (1971)
Context: Your body is just one in a mass of cuddly humanity. Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them. The duty of a revolutionary is to make love and that means staying alive and free. That doesn't allow for cop-outs. Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps. A revolution in consciousness is an empty high without a revolution in the distribution of power.

Drink

“Wet towel under the door,' said Barry. 'It's what you do when you're smoking weed in a hotel and you don't want everyone calling security. You're always supposed to have a towel. I read about it in a guide for hitchhiking through the galaxy.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: Bite Me

Reading

“What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as is this flesh. This mawky worm-bent tabernacle.”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 130
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Put away these frozenjawed primates and their annals of ways beset and ultimate dark. What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as in this flesh. This mawky wormbent tabernacle.

God, Soul

“I can sleep like a champion. I once slept through a smoke alarm going off. For three hours.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Sleep

“One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Variant: There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

Way, Soul

“The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Way, Relationship

“Miraculously, smoke curled out of his own mouth, his nose, his ears, his eyes, as if his soul had been extinguished within his lungs at the very moment the sweet pumpkin gave up its incensed ghost.”

Ray Bradbury book The Halloween Tree

Source: The Halloween Tree

Soul

“Do you mind if I don't smoke?”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Fate, Way, Suffering, Help

“She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no one. She spent hours on the riverbank. She smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims…”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Secret, Flowers

“As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Soul

“I go to my Room and I drink and I smoke some cigarettes and I think about her. I drink and I smoke and I think about her and at a certain point blackness comes and my memory fails me.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Drink, Thinking, Memory

“To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Peace, Coffee, Drink, Time

“I think pot should be legal. I don’t smoke it, but I like the smell of it.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Thinking

“Isn’t making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“He who doth not smoke hath either known no great griefs, or refuseth himself the softest consolation, next to that which comes from heaven.”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician

“That day was the beginning of my friendship with Sebastian, and thus it came about, that morning in June, that I was lying beside him in the shade of the high elms watching the smoke from his lips drift up into the branches.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Friendship, Lying

“Smoking had become my favorite thing in the world to do. It was like having instant comfort, no matter where or when.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

World

“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

“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

“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

“Smoke, drink and never think.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Drink, Thinking

“Forget the chicken-nugget smoke screen. Percy wanted Leo to invent an anti-dream hat.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Dreams, Forgetting

“College is the best thing that can ever happen to you," my father used to say, and he was right, for it was there that I discovered drugs, drinking, and smoking..”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked

Drink

“The leaf fall of his words, the stained glass hues of his moods, the rust in his voice, the smoke in his mouth, his breath on my vision like human breath blinding a mirror.”

Anaïs Nin book House of Incest

Source: House of Incest

Mood

“She can feel his blood, just beneath his skin; when he breathes, the air fills with smoke. He's like a dragon, ancient and fearless.”

Alice Hoffman book Here on Earth

Source: Here on Earth

Feeling

“And I just want to tell you, at some point it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, being
angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning
yourself without thinking about it.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Thinking

“But God is only a white cold eye, a quarter-moon poised above the smoke, blinking, blinking, as the city is gradually pounded to dust.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

God

“Maple. Maypole
Catch and carry.
Ash and Ember.
Elderberry.
Woolen. Woman.
Moon at night.
Willow. Window.
Candlelight.
Fallow farrow.
Ash and oak.
Bide and borrow.
Chimney smoke.
Barrel. Barley.
Stone and stave.
Wind and water.
Misbehave.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Water, Night

“Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Children, Forgetting

“I wasn't a misanthrope and I wasn't a misogynist but I liked being alone. It felt good to sit alone in a small space and smoke and drink. I had always been good company for myself.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Drink

“Most countries are static, all they need to do is keep having babies. But America's like this big old clanking smoking machine that just lumbers across the landscape scooping up and eating everything in sight.”

Neal Stephenson book Snow Crash

Source: Snow Crash

Baby, Country

“Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.”

Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist

Love

“oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

Love, God, Coffee, Drink

“Is Adrian here?”
“Who?”
“Adrian. Tall. Brown hair. Green eyes.”
She frowned. “Do you mean Jet?”
“I … I’m not sure. Does he smoke like a chimney?”
The girl nodded sagely. “Yup. You must mean Jet.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Girl

“Oh, yeah?" Leo growled. "Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I've got the fire.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“There was a young lady named Mae
Who smoked without stopping all day;
As pack followed pack,
Her lungs first turned black,
And eventually rotted away.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Source: Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“I smoked in those days because, like everyone else in the world who smokes, I wanted to die at least as much as I wanted to live. – G. D. Roberts, Shantaram.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

World

“Magnus snapped his fingers again, menacingly. "Get up."
"Or you'll be the next one to go up in smoke," said Simon with relish.
"There's no need to clarify my finger snap. The implication was clear in the snap itself."”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Magnus and Simon, pg. 137
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

“All that sadness. All that anger. It is the smoke that gets into your eyes. If you do not blow it away, how can you hope to see?”

Anthony Horowitz (1955) English novelist and screenwriter

Source: Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin

Sadness, Hope, Anger

“You may tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke so much, not from the smoking itself.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Source: Not Dying: An Autobiographical Interlude

“So of course time is necessary. But nevertheless damn painful, for it transforms all the pieces of your life - joy and sorrow, youth and age, love and hate, terror and bliss - from fire into smoke rising up the air and dissipating on a breeze.”

Charles Frazier (1950) American writer

Love, Life, Pain, Hate

“I have the right to do whatever I wish with my property. If I own a pile of wood, I can set fire to it even if it is currently nailed together in the shape of a barn. Cigarettes may not be healthy for me in the long run, but I have the freedom to smoke them anyway. Drinking alcohol may or may not have negative side effects, but even if it does, the government has no authority to prohibit you from consuming it, even if it is "in your own best interest." Since when do we let the government decide what is or isn't good for us? What the hell does Congress know about nutrition, anyway? (For that matter, what does Congress know about the Constitution?) If the government can use force whenever something is "in our best interest" then government should force everyone to wake up at 6am every morning for calisthenics in the front yard. Fast food establishments should be torn down and replaced with bars that serve carrot juice and alfalfa sprouts, since - "it's in your best interest."”

Michael Badnarik (1954) American software engineer

This paternalistic attitude that "the government knows best" and that you are merely a helpless child is insulting and reprehensible. Hitler used the same attitude to persuade the Germans to subjugate themselves to the "Fatherland."
Source: Good to be King (2004)

Alcohol, Food, Hell, Drink

“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

Sense, Suffering

“(Young girl rejecting Devil's attempt to purchase her soul) Bag your face.... You set off the smoke detector, ham breath.”

Nicole Hollander (1939) Cartoonist

Source: Sylvia cartoon strip, p. 142

Soul, Girl

“They call me Boosie Baddazz and I Zoom right by ya, 760 partna crispy cream on the tires, I smoke that fire purple kush by the pound, ask my dog Webbie this is how it goes down, from my hood to yo hood, man we makin money”

Lil Boosie (1982) American rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Boosie

Money, Dogs

“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)

“Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

God, Home, Hell, Sun

“Incense smokes, and love takes care,
In her blue bed the virgin died;
The fire broods, the day falls,
The Angel, sisters, knocks on the door.”

Stuart Merrill (1863–1915) American poet, who wrote mostly in the French language

Fume l'encens, veille l'amour,
Dans son lit bleu la vierge est morte;
Couve le feu, tombe le jour,
L'Ange, mes soeurs, frappe à la porte.
"La Mystérieuse Chanson"

Love, Angels, Sister

“And the sad part is that you actually believe in The Undertaker. You actually believe that he has all these magic powers which is really alll just smoke and mirrors.”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

Friday Night SmackDown

Sadness, Parting

“And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.”

Rudyard Kipling The Betrothed

The Betrothed, Stanza 25.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)
Variant: And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

“Tell me, Nelson, I'm just curious. How does it feel to have smoked up your parents' house in crack?”

John Updike book Rabbit at Rest

Rabbit at Rest (1990)

Feeling, Parent, Housing

“There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God's bounty…. Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction…. In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again; even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete not the power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward…. But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that was to be conquered.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

1918 (The Hour of God)
India's Rebirth

Men, God, Truth, Fear

“Punk: Tonight, the Straight-edge Society becomes the first ever Straight-edge World Unified Tag Team Champions. I came out here for a reason, I came out with a purpose. I'm here to lead my crusade, [Crowd chants you suck] and I've brought my disciples, Luke Gallows and the beautiful Serena with me.
Triple H: Punk, I have been watching Smackdown. And I gotta say, while I'm relieved to know that your straight, this whole I don't drink thing, I don't think anybody really gives a crap, do you know what I mean? [Crowd cheers]
Punk: You're looking at three people who give a crap, and don't try to pretend you know anything about me, or you know anything about Straight-edge, or you know anything about my society at all.
Triple H: No, no, no, no, you're right. I don't know anything about it, I don't get it, Punk, that's the thing. I don't get it, I mean you don't drink, you don't do drugs, you don't smoke. Okay, neither do I. But then again, I don't look like I've been on a week long crack binge with Amy Winehouse! [Serena shakes her head, Punk looks pissed] I'm just saying, have a little pride, man. Pick yourself up, clean yourself off. Maybe take them clippers out of the bag, shave that squirrel off you got on your chin. [Punk grabs his beard and mouths off] Hey, do yourself a favor. Grab a shower, cause I don't know if it's you, Lobotomy Man, or Britney Spears right there, but one of you's got a bad case of swamp butt!
Punk: Alright, are you done? Is amateur comedy hour over? Because I came here to claim those tag titles!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

January 29, 2010
Friday Night SmackDown

People, World, Beauty, Drink

“Nursed amid her [London's] noise, her crowds, her beloved smoke, what have I been doing all my life, if I have not lent out my heart with usury to such scenes?”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

Letter to Thomas Manning (February 15, 1802)

Life, Heart

“I will take the Government of the United States, and the laws of Missouri and Illinois, from the year 1833 to 1845, and if they had been carried out according to their letter and spirit, they would have strung up the murderers and mobocrats who illegally and unrighteously killed, plundered, harassed, and expelled us. I will tell you how much I love those characters. If they had any respect to their own welfare, they would come forth and say, whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet or not, "We shed his blood, and now let us atone for it;" and they would be willing to have their heads chopped off, that their blood might run upon the ground, and the smoke of it rise before the Lord as an incense for their sins. I love them that much. But if the Lord wishes them to live and foam out their sins before all men and women, it is all right, I care not where they go, or what they do.”

Brigham Young (1801–1877) Latter Day Saint movement leader

Journal of Discourses 2:186 (Feb. 18, 1855)
Young's response to those that persecuted the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois.
1850s

Love, Women, Men, Law

“I look at you and see
my life that might have been
your face just ghostly in the smoke.
They're setting fire to the cornfields
as you're taking me home.
The smell of burning fields
will now mean you and here.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Sensual World (1989)

Life, Home

“Here from this mountain shore, headland beyond stormy headland
plunging like dolphins through the blue sea-smoke
Into pale sea — look west at the hill of water: it is half the planet:
this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia,
Australia and white Antarctica: those are the eyelids that never close;
this is the staring unsleeping
Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars.”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

"The Eye"

War, Mountain, Water, Sea

“Life's too short to drink bad wine or smoke poor cigars.”

Don Johnson (1949) American actor and singer

Cigar Aficionado: Life After Miami Vice http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,182,00.html

Life, Drink, Wine

“People are shuffling by in long coats, with shopping bags and takeout, smoking cigarettes and feigning laughter - filling up their lives with distractions to shut out the chaos.”

Rob Payne (1973) Canadian writer

Source: Working Class Zero (2003), Chapter 26, p. 201

People, Laughter

“I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, 'Hi, how are you?' I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/madonna_2.htm.

Hate, People

“Birkenstock desert boots have been a part of pop culture since the beatniks. I made such a fuzz about them being discontinued that the company send me an "lifetime supply", which initially turned out to be seven pairs at two years apiece. They weren’t giving me very long. I think that’s why I gave up smoking.”

Johnny Marr (1963) musician

from "Pieces of me", The Guardian (June 2007).

Thinking, Parting

“You ever smoke so much pot your wife starts to make sense? Me neither.”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

A Little Unprofessional

Sense

“On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place,
In those far, terrific regions where the cold comes down like Death
Gleams the red glint of his pinions, smokes the vapor of his breath. Floating downward, very clear, still the echoes reach the ear
Of a little tune he whistles and a little song he sings,
Mounting, mounting still, triumphant, on his torn and broken wings!”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Young Adventure (1918), Winged Man

Death, Singing

“If someone is frequently under attack by negative entities, it is because of a polluted consciousness that needs to be upgraded. A negative entity dislikes visiting a clean mind as much as a rat dislikes going to a clean place. […] Putting up spiritual paraphernalia around the home and not allowing any negative activity to go on in the environment can help you greatly. This may mean asking friends and loved ones to refrain from drinking, smoking, taking drugs, gossiping, or doing any activity that does not encourage spiritual thought and action.”

Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer

Source: Books, Spiritual Warrior, Volume I: Uncovering Spiritual Truths in Psychic Phenomena (Hari-Nama Press, 1996), Chapter 1: Dreams: A State of Reality, p. 22

Love, Home, Drink, Help

“Opening the door to the visiting doctor, all set to apologize for the flour on her hands—she had been baking—Mrs. Byrne sniffed. Smoke! And if she could smell it with her heavy head cold, it must be a tremendous fire!
”We ought to call the brigade!” she exclaimed. “Is it a hayrick?”
”The brigade would have a long way to go,” the doctor told her curtly. “It’s from America. The wind’s blowing that way.””

John Brunner book The Sheep Look Up

November “THE SMOKE OF THAT GREAT BURNING”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)

Way

“Mappo Trell, I believe motivations prove, ultimately, irrelevant. Upon either side of the battlefield the face grins with blunt stupidity, even as smoke fills the sky from horizon to horizon, even as crops whither and die, even as sweet land turns to salt. Inequity ends, Trell, when no-one and no thing is left standing.”

Steven Erikson book The Bonehunters

The Bonehunters (2006)

Stupidity, Motivation

Quotes about smoking page 2

Quotes about smoking
page 2