Torch Quotes
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Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance.
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More Torch Quotes
Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.
Adolf Hitler— 1935 Speech in the Reichstag, Berlin, 21 May.
It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg— c.1779-1783 Aphorisms, Notebook G (translated by R J Hollingdale,1990).
I do not know if you remember the tale of the girl who saves the ship under mutiny by sitting on the powder barrel with her lighted torch ... and all the time knowing that it is empty? This has seemed to me a charming image of the women of my time. There they were, keeping the world in order ... by sitting on the mystery of life, and knowing themselves that there was no mystery.
karen blixen— "The Old Chevalier"
Once Europe existed in a Dark Age and Islam carried the torch of learning. Now we Muslims live in a Dark age.
mahmud tarzi— Mahmud Tarzi, reflecting on King Amanullah's exile. [Link]
Love is the greatest light, the brightest torch, and will always be the greatest instrument of change.
jennifer beals— Acceptance speech for The Center Orange County's "Torch Bearer" Award, Santa Ana, California (5 June 2010)
Moral improvement (or perfecting) require an evolution leading to a higher consciousness, which is the true torch of life; it is what we have failed too much to appreciate, and that which would be fatal to fail to appreciate any longer ("pluslongtemps", Fr.); For if we do not take it upon ourselves to remedy in time to the moral colapse (or bankruptcy) that already threaten, the whole civilisation will risks to disappear.
african spir— p. 60 (Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937))
Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summed with all his substance.
George Chapman— 1607 Bussy d'Ambois, act1, sc.1.
I am imbued with two deep impressions; the first, that science knows no country; the second, which seems to contradict the first, although it is really a direct consequence of it – that science is the highest personification of the nation. Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
Louis Pasteur— Toast at the banquet of the International Congress of Sericulture (translated by Rene Dubois, 1876).
"Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization."
hal abelson— Source: MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering
There is no country ... where there are not somewhere lovers of freedom who look to this country to carry the torch and keep it burning bright until such time as they may again be able to light their extinguished torches at our flame. We owe it not only to our own people but to the world to preserve our soul for that.
stanley baldwin— Speech at University of Durham to the Ashridge Fellowship, as quoted in The Times (3 December 1934); also in Christian Conservatives and the Totalitarian Challenge, 1933-40 by Philip Williamson, in The English Historical Review, Vol. 115, No. 462 (June 2000)
I've burned my own house down, the torch is in my hand.Now I'll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me.
kabir— The Bijak of Kabir (1983;2002) as translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh.
I may not speak till Eros' torch is dim,The god is bitter and will have it so.
sara teasdale— Roundel
Reasoning with a drunkard is like going under water with a torch to seek for a drowning man.
thiruvalluvar— Verse XCIII.9
I want to tell Carter and Begin that when the Arabs set off their volcano there will be only Arabs in this part of the world… Our people will continue to fuel the torch of the revolution with rivers of blood until the whole of the occupied homeland is liberated, the whole of the homeland is liberated, not just a part of it.
yasser arafat— Quoted in the Associated Press (12 March 1979)
Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag.
joseph chamberlain— Speech entitled 'The True Conception of Empire' to the Royal Colonial Institute (31 March, 1897).
The scriptures bid us to send forth our light and our truth and when children carry within their hearts the torch of hope, they learn the darkness yields not only to man-made fire, but to starlight, to the rising sun, and to the light of the soul.
dennis kucinich— Speech, Cleveland City Council (13 October 2003) [2].
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
Emma Lazarus— The New Colossus
It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg— G 4Variant translations:
It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.
It is virtually impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd, without singeing someone's beard
I'm here with the cause, I'm holding the torch In the corner of your room- can you hear me? And when you're dancing and laughing, and finally living, Hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly.
morrissey— From the song "Rubber Ring"
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
Louis Pasteur— As quoted in Louis Pasteur, Free Lance of Science (1960) by René Jules Dubos, Ch. 3 "Pasteur in Action"
Every age has its own poetry ; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.
jean-paul sartre— "Orphée Noir (Black Orpheus)"
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles.
Emma Lazarus— The New Colossus (1883)
While many a glowworm in the shade Lights up her love torch.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Nightingale.
Judge not that ye be not judged; we carried the torch to the goal. The goal is won: guard the fire: it is yours: but remember our soul Breathes through the life that we saved, when our lives went out in the night: Your body is woven of ours: see that the torch is alight.
— Edward J. O'Brien, On the Day of Achievement.
I've burned my own house down, the torch is in my hand. Now I'll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me.
— The Bijak of Kabir (1983;2002) as translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh.
Reasoning with a drunkard is like Going under water with a torch to seek for a drowning man.
— Verse XCIII.9 (Tirukkural)
Islam was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was and it remains incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.
— Islam is Christianity adapted to Arab mentality, or, more exactly, it is all that the unimaginative brain of a Bedouin, obstinately faithful to ancestral practices, has been able to assimilate of the Christian doctrines. Lacking the gift of imagination, the Bedouin copies, and in copying he distorts the original. Thus Musulman law is only the Roman Code revised and corrected by Arabs; in the same way Musulman science is nothing but Greek science interpreted by the Arab brain; and again, Musulman architecture is merely a distorted imitation of the Byzantine style.
— Andre Servier, in L’islam et la psychologie du musulman (1923)
Your flaming torch aloft we bear, With burning heart an oath we swear To keep the faith, to fight it through, To crush the foe or sleep with you In Flanders' fields.
— C. B. Galbreath. Answer to McCrae's In Flanders' Fields.
