quotations about lightning
We sail across dominions barely seen, washed by the swells of time. We plow through fields of magnetism. Past and future come together on thunderheads and our dead hearts live with lightning in the wounds of the Gods.
NORMAN MAILER
Ancient Evenings
Like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can say--It lightens!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
So Lightning says to Mud,
"What would happen if I struck your blood?"
And Mud says, "Brother,
It would hurt,
And make me the mother
Of every living thing.
But, Fire Boy, you ain't lifting my grass skirt
Until you burn me a ring."
SHERMAN ALEXIE
"Creation Story", Mudlark Flash, 2011
Heat lightning prowls, pranks the mountain horizon like
Memory. I follow the soundless flicker,
As ridge after ridge, as outline of peak after peak,
Is momentarily defined in the
Pale wash, the rose-flush, of distance.
ROBERT PENN WARREN
"Heat Lightning", The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren
The flash at midnight!--'twas a light
That gave the blind a moment's sight,
Then sunk in tenfold gloom;
Loud, deep, and long the thunder broke,
The deaf ear instantly awoke,
Then closed as in the tomb:
An angel might have pass'd my bed,
Sounded the trump of GOD, and fled.
JAMES MONTGOMERY
"Winter Lightning", Poetical Works of James Montgomery
Lightning seems a thought, which instead of being attached to a brain, is attached to an electric current.
FLAMMARION
attributed, The Alkaloidal Clinic, Volume 12
Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
MARK TWAIN
Twain: Wit and Wisecracks
The lightning flashing in the heavens is like the fire of musketry from a hostile army.
CORA AGNEW
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is vain to look for a defense against lightning.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Maxims
When you've been struck by lightning as many times as I have, you start to expect the worst pretty much all the time.
JENNIFER BOSWORTH
Struck
To flattering lightning our feign'd smiles conform,
Which, back'd with thunder, do but gild a storm.
JOHN DRYDEN
The Poetical Works of John Dryden
Lightning is like an elementary spirit, eccentric or rational, clever or silly, passing from one extreme to the other.
FLAMMARION
attributed, The Alkaloidal Clinic, Volume 12
To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder,
In the most terrible and nimble stroke
Of quick, cross lightning.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
In the dark clouds the sharp flashes of impulsive lightning are born.
ELIS WYN
attributed, Day's Collacon
The reason lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn't there the second time.
WILLIE TYLER
attributed, Seventeenth Century Review
The Lord takes care of his own, but church trustees still put lightning rods on the steeple.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
And ere a man can say--Behold!
The jaws of darkness devour it up.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
A Midsummer Night's Dream