Lightning Rod Quotes & Sayings

When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God. — Bertrand Russell

I seem to be some sort of lightning rod. I just really irritate people, you know? I really do. — Howard Stern

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence — Doug McLeod

We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit. — Julian Assange

If you wake up in some field during a storm with an iron bar glued to your hand, obviously someone wants you to be a lightning rod. — Ryan Harding

Because of my political views, I've been targeted as a lightning rod, someone who's too far out there. — John Turner

Attacking a lightning rod doesn't make you lightning ...
Regarding Barack Obama — T. Rafael Cimino

He bats like a lightning rod. — W.P. Kinsella

Nothing is a stronger cultural lightning rod than two needles and a ball of yarn. But — Clara Parkes

Some primitive societies avoid striking out at the true guilty party because it might awaken the spirit of vengeance. Channeling violence toward a sacrificial victim as if toward a lightning rod doubtless stops violence, but it's not very pretty. — Rene Girard

I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph. — Tom Wolfe

When people oppose your view, you can become a lightning rod, but if I were you, I'd let them stew ... — John Geddes

I got a letter from a lightning rod company this morning trying to out the fear of God in me, but with small success. Lightning seems to have lost its menace. Compared to what is going on on earth today, heaven's firebrands are penny fireworks with wet fuses. — E.B. White

When you think about rock at its origin, and you think of the Beatles and millions of kids screaming as loud as they can and running as fast as they can towards the Beatles, there's no one who is that kind of lightning rod, who commands that kind of power and has that kind of creative magma. — Jack Black

She tried to twist from his grip, but he held firm. Gods, she wanted to throw him across the cave - and with the same strength as when she'd pinned him earlier.
"What in the hell were you thinking to enter a competition like the Hie?" He gave her shoulders a jostle. "You knew what you were getting into, and you still signed up. You could have died!" he roared, shaking her hard.
She raised her hands to shove against his chest; he flew across the cavern, as though tossed against the far wall.
When he landed, he looked as dumbfounded as she felt. MacRieve was like a lightning rod for her powers. Whenever she wanted to use them against him, they worked perfectly.
As he made it back to his feet, an expression of such pure menace twisted his face that she thought he could kill her.
Fitting - since she was about to kill him. — Kresley Cole

An iron rod being placed on the outside of a building from the highest part continued down into the moist earth, in any direction strait or crooked, following the form of the roof or other parts of the building, will receive the lightning at its upper end, attracting it so as to prevent it's striking any other part; and, affording it a good conveyance into the earth, will prevent its damaging any part of the building. — Benjamin Franklin

We think that Hillary [Clinton] will be a symbol and a reality for the women of the world, and it's very important because so many - so many underdeveloped countries, not the least of which is Afghanistan, the women of the world need help, and she understands those issues and is a lightning rod for them. — Eleanor Smeal

The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God's wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Americans expect the president to right the wrongs that plague us - and we blame him when he fails. Because we invest impossible expectations in the presidency, the presidency has become an impossible job. And once the honeymoon period inevitably fades, the modern president becomes a lightning rod for discontent, often catching blame for phenomena beyond the control of any one person, however powerful — Gene Healy

I truly loved the soldiers I served with, in ways that transcend familial or romantic love. Some of them still call me, and for the guys in my fire team I'll be their 'sarge' for perpetuity. And even though some stayed active duty and outranked the E-5 stripes I proudly wore, they'll always be Specialist Joe to me. The lightning rod of combat, the first rounds fired, it solidifies that moment, encapsulating it and preserving the bond. For us, time stopped and Bravo Fire Team will always be as it was. Even though we moved on, it remains. — J.R. Handley

Marriage is the lightning rod that absorbs anxiety and stress from all other sources, past and present. When marriage has a firm foundation of solid friendship and mutual respect, it can tolerate a fair amount of raw emotion. A good fight can clear the air, and it's nice to know we can survive conflict and even learn from it. Many couples, however, get trapped in endless rounds of fighting and blaming that they don't know how to get out of. When fights go unchecked and unrepaired, they can eventually erode love and respect, which are the bedrock of any successful relationship. — Harriet Lerner

Many men want wealth,
not a competence alone, but a live-story competence. Everything subserves this; and religion they would like as a sort of lightning-rod to their houses, to ward off by and by the bolts of Divine wrath. — Henry Ward Beecher

Laughter is the lightning rod of play, the eroticism of conversation. — Eva Hoffman

Did the Redeemer so identify himself with his brothers, the sinners, that he will not distinguish himself from them in the presence of God, with the result that, like a lightning rod, he draws the judgment of God - a judgment upon the reality of opposition to God in the world - on to himself? Let no one object that the notion of an angry God is archaic and obsolete since a loving Father has given his Son for the world's sake (Jn 3:16; Rom 8:32). Nothing hinders God, who loves the sinner, from being angry on account of the sin he hates. — Hans Urs Von Balthasar

She hadn't seen him since yesterday, and Charlotte did not understand the sensation that gripped her at the sight of him.
As if she were a lightning rod, waiting for the storm above to strike. As if she had lost all control over her life and was thrown into chaos. — Michelle Diener

As long as I'm in this city, I'm a lightning rod, ... People don't like me for a lot of reasons and I create all of them. I love it when they hate me. All my closest friends hate me. — John Chaney

Apply extreme caution when wearing red in the workplace. Even a simple demure red outfit -- a cashmere twinset -- can turn you into the office lightning rod. If you are crafty, you can use this to your advantage. To gain the upper hand in an upcoming negotiation, try wearing a flaming red silk blouse and painting your nails red. — Simon Doonan

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write, if you must; not otherwise. Do not write, if you can earn a fair living at teaching or dressmaking, at electricity or hod-carrying. Make shoes, weed cabbages, survey land, keep house, make ice-cream, sell cake, climb a telephone pole. Nay, be a lightning-rod peddler or a book agent, before you set your heart upon it that you shall write for a living ... Living? It is more likely to be dying by your pen; despairing by your pen; burying hope and heart and youth and courage in your ink-stand. — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

D'Alembert was always surrounded by controversy ... he was the lightning rod which drew sparks from all the foes of the philosophes ... Unfortunately he carried this ... pugnacity into his scientific research and once he had entered a controversy, he argued his cause with vigour and stubbornness. He closed his mind to the possibility that he might be wrong ... — Jean Le Rond D'Alembert