Ignis Quotes & Sayings

The abdication of Belief
Makes the Behavior small-
Better an ignis fatuus
Than no illume at all. — Emily Dickinson

It does good to no woman to be flattered [by a man] who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication. — Charlotte Bronte

If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off — Nigel Short

It would seem big, scary, badass, looking-like-a raving-lunatic Ryker needed his BFF. — Kristen Ashley

The biggest challenge facing the great teachers and communicators of history is not to teach history itself, nor even the lessons of history, but why history matters. How to ignite the first spark of the will o'the wisp, the Jack o'lantern, the ignis fatuus [foolish fire] beloved of poets, which lights up one source of history and then another, zigzagging across the marsh, connecting and linking and writing bright words across the dark face of the present. There's no phrase I can come up that will encapsulate in a winning sound-bite why history matters. We know that history matters, we know that it is thrilling, absorbing, fascinating, delightful and infuriating, that it is life. Yet I can't help wondering if it's a bit like being a Wagnerite; you just have to get used to the fact that some people are never going to listen. — Stephen Fry

Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it. — John Adams

His bowels, far greater alchemist than he had ever been, regularly performed the transmutation of corpses, those of beasts and of plants, into living matter, separating the useful from the dross without help from him. Ignis inferioris Naturae: those spirals of brown mud, precisely coiled and still steaming from the decocting process which they have undergone in their mold, this ammoniac and nitric fluid passed into a clay pot, were the visible and fetid proof of work completed in laboratories where we do not intervene. It seemed to Zeno that the disgust of fastidious persons at this refuse, and the obscene laughter of the ignorant, were due less to the fact that these objects offend our senses than to our horror in the presence of the mysterious and ineluctable routines of our bodies. — Marguerite Yourcenar

I made my parents crazy. As a kid, I redecorated my bedroom every month. I would literally save my allowance and go buy things. — Nate Berkus

Behold, I am writing anew, through scribes on Earth who are willing to listen to me again with new ears, in the light of the present crises on planet Earth. — Barbara Marx Hubbard

But do I need to say anything?" Sophie asked. "Do I need to learn any words?"
"Like what?" Saint-Germain said.
"Well, when you lit up the Eiffel tower, you said something that sounded like eggness."
"Ignis," the count said. "Latin for fire. No, you don't need to say anything."
"Then why did you do it, then?" Sophie asked.
Saint-Germain grinned. "I just thought it sounded cool. — Michael Scott

He is good and kind and honorable. He is my north star after being lost for too long. — Heather Lyons

Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros.
Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. — Seneca.

This is a subtle truth. Whatever you love, you are. — Rumi

You foolish man. Of course there's love. Don't you know? I love you. — Susan Elizabeth Phillips

It shouldn't matter when I fell in love with you. Or how. All that matters is that I did. — Brenda Novak

All I can say on women's issues and women's health issues, there will be nobody better than Donald Trump. — Donald Trump

They ate and moved on, leaving the fire on the ground behind them, and as they rode up into the mountains this fire seemed to become altered of its location, now here, now there, drawing away, or shifting unaccountably along the flank of their movement. Like some ignis fatuus belated upon the road behind them which all could see and of which none spoke. For this will to deceive that is in things luminous may manifest itself likewise in retrospect and so by sleight of some fixed part of a journey already accomplished may also post men to fraudulent destinies. As — Cormac McCarthy

Fear of failure impedes adequate self-identification — Sunday Adelaja

Today you have won a thousand kisses. Happy birthday. — Auliq Ice

There are hundreds who don't know the difference between a cleansing cream and an emollient - which to our minds is practically the same as being illiterate. — Marjorie Hillis

I believe in Jesus Christ. He said deny me in front of your friends & I will deny you in front of my father. — Werley Nortreus

True zeal is an ignis lambeus, a soft and gentle flame, that will not scorch one's hand. — Ralph Cudworth

The Ignis Fatuus is a vapor shining without heat. — Isaac Newton

Rarely offstage, rarely on hiatus, Fiddler on the Roof has already been back on Broadway for four revivals, played London's West End four times, and remains among Broadway's longest-running shows ever. — Barbara Isenberg