Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Fire
Yet in oure asshen olde is fyr yreke.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. The Reves Prologue. L. 3,881.
Words pregnant with celestial fire.
Cowper—Boadicea. 33.
E’en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires.
Gray—Elegy in a Country Churchyard. 23. Gray says it was suggested by Petrarch—Sonnet. 169. Same phrase in Shakespeare—Antony and Cleopatra. Act V. Sc. 2.
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire.
Gray—Elegy. 46.
A crooked log makes a straight fire.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
Well may he smell fire, whose gown burns.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
Tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
Your own property is concerned when your neighbor’s house is on fire.
Horace—Epistles. I. 18. 84.
The burnt child dreads the fire.
Ben Jonson—The Devil is an Ass. Act I. Sc. 2.
How great a matter a little fire kindleth!
James. III. 5.
Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.
Latimer—The Martyrdom. P. 523.
There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.
Lyly—Euphues and his Emphœbus. P. 153. (Arber’s Reprint.)
All the fatt’s in the fire.
Marston—What You Will. 1607.
Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. I. L. 77.
They lepe lyke a flounder out of a fryenge panne into the fyre.
Thomas More—Dial. Bk. II. Ch. I. Folio LXIII. b.
Dare pondus idonea fumo.
Fit to give weight to smoke.
Persius—Satires. V. 20.
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Idea in Plato—De Repub. VIII. P. 569. B. Theodoret—Therap. III. 773.
Flamma fumo est proxima.
Flame is very near to smoke.
Plautus—Curculio. Act I. 1. 53.
Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire.
Pope—Epistle to Mrs. Teresa Blount, on her leaving the Town after the Coronation.
Heap coals of fire upon his head.
Proverbs. XXV. 22.
Parva sæpe scintilla contempta magnum excitavit incendium.
A spark neglected has often raised a conflagration.
Quintus Curtius Rufus—De Rebus Gestis Alexandria Magni. VI. 3. 11.
A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being sufter’d, rivers cannot quench.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act IV. Sc. 8. L. 6.
The fire i’ the flint
Shows not till it be struck.
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 22.
Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 30.
In ashes of despaire, though burnt, shall make thee live.
Sir Philip Sidney—Arcadia.
O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live.
Wordsworth—Ode. IV. 53. (Knight’s ed.)