Fire Quotes | Beyond Motive

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Fire Quotes

"When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes."

Dylan Thomas, Welsh Poet

5

"Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire."

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Public Servant

Fire, Soldiers, Washington

4

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

Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Artist

3

"How could I stand by and watch my house on fire?"

Kamisese Mara, Fijian Statesman

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"I took all my wax studies and threw them in the fire... that's the way it is when something unpleasant happens to me. I take my hammer and I squash a figure."

Camille Claudel, French Sculptor

1

"The town caught fire in several places, shells crashed and burst, and solid shot rained like hail."

James Longstreet, American Soldier

1

"Last year in a historic move, the state of New York passed the very first cigarette fire safety standard."

Ed Markey, American Politician

Fire, First, Safety, State

1

"Managers tend to treat organizations as if they are infinitely plastic. They hire and fire, merge, downsize, terminate programs, add capacities. But there are limits to the shifts that organizations can absorb."

Kevin Kelly, American Editor

Fire, Limits, Managers

1

"My passions have never jumped out of the fireplace and set fire to the carpet."

Mason Cooley, American Writer

"The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire."

John Legend, American Musician

Fire, Play, Training

"It is easy enough to be moral after a good dinner beside a snug coal fire, and with our hearts well warmed with fine old port."

Henry Mayhew, English Journalist

"The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire."

Edgar Allan Poe, American Poet

Fire, Reason, World

"I was the first woman to burn my bra - it took the fire department four days to put it out."

Dolly Parton, American Musician

Fire, First, Woman

"There is nothing Federal about local volunteer fire departments."

Bobby Scott, American Politician

"I have defeated this earthworm with my words. Imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists."

Charlie Sheen, American Actor

"Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire."

Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Spanish Poet

"It's not a party until the fire department shows up."

Thom Filicia, American Designer

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

Victor Hugo, French Author

"What a couple. I'm consumed into ashes. And he's always raking up the ashes and setting them on fire again."

Agnes Smedley, American Journalist

"My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?"

Erma Bombeck, American Journalist

Fire, Housework, Theory

"In all feats of fire-eating it should be noted that the head is thrown well back, so that the flame may pass out of the open mouth instead of up into the roof, as it would if the head were held naturally."

Harry Houdini, Hungarian Entertainer

Fire, May, Open

"The Irish seem to have more fire about them than the Scots."

Sean Connery, Scottish Actor

"The trouble with Germans is not that they fire shells, but that they engrave them with quotations from Kant."

Karl Kraus, Austrian Writer

Fire, Quotations, Trouble

"It takes two flints to make a fire."

Louisa May Alcott, American Novelist

"We set the town on fire and burned down every house as a warning to other small towns along the river."

Knute Nelson, American Politician

"I always wanted to fire rays out of my fingertips."

Len Wein, American Cartoonist

"There are two kinds of directors: There's the kind where two plus two equals four, and you have to help them figure it out. And then there's the kind that throws you in a room, locks the door, sets the house on fire and films it."

Michael Pitt, American Actor

"We didn't have a drill so he would burn the holes through the wood with a metal rod that he heated up in a fire. Can you imagine an ordinary crew doing that?"

Marc Singer, Canadian Actor

"The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire."

Richard M. Nixon, American President

"One does not set fire to a world which is already lost."

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Swiss Author

"Deliberate violence is more to be quenched than a fire."

Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher

"I never wanted to set the world on fire. So I never had to burn any bridges behind me."

Dinah Shore, American Actress

"The fire burns as the novel taught it how."

Wallace Stevens, American Poet

"We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire."

Eric Hoffer, American Writer

"No. Better research needed. Fire your research person. No fishnet stockings. Never. Not in this band."

Gene Simmons, American Musician

"It wasn't a checkpoint but a patrol which immediately opened fire after they trained their light on us."

Giuliana Sgrena, Italian Journalist

"The fire was followed by a period of grieving and then by an incredible lightness, freedom, and mobility."

Martin Puryear, American Sculptor

"They're either going to fire you or they're not. They can only fire you. That's all they can do. They can't take your thumbs."

Ron Livingston, American Actor

"Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire."

Abbie Hoffman, American Activist

Fire, Freespeech, Right

"I never could stand losing. Second place didn't interest me. I had a fire in my belly."

Ty Cobb, American Athlete

Fire, Interest, Losing

"I did mostly good things, except light things on fire."

Mark Hoppus, American Musician

"Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice."

Ethel Merman, American Musician

"Running like a bunny with his tail on fire."

Red Barber, American Celebrity

"You know me, I've got to find some way to get a fresh fire."

Garth Brooks, American Musician

"In open range fires it is about picking a spot and hoping it is the right location. At the head of the fire you have to worry about wind and humidity and a number of other factors."

John Glover, American Actor

Fire, Open, Right, Wind

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire."

Pamela Hansford Johnson, English Critic

Fire, Sky, Sunset, Water

"I am not authorized to fire substitute teachers."

Nancy Cartwright, American Actress

"Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire."

Joseph Smith, Jr., American Clergyman

Fire, Joseph Smith, Jr.

"Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements."

Harry Houdini, Hungarian Entertainer

"There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism."

George Eliot, British Author

Fire, Jealousy, Needs, Passion

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