LIGHTNING QUOTES
quotations about lightning
By fancy's aid I see the lightning fly,
And the hoarse thunder roll along the sky.
JOHN RAMSAY
"Dundonald Castle", Eglington Park Meeting and Other Poems
Lightning rendeth the rocks.
OWAIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with the enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God. For, as all right-thinking people were aware, lightning is sent by God to punish impiety or some other grave sin—the virtuous are never struck by lightning. Therefore if God wants to strike any one, Benjamin Franklin [and his lightning-rod] ought not to defeat His design; indeed, to do so is helping criminals to escape. But God was equal to the occasion, if we are to believe the eminent Dr. Price, one of the leading divines of Boston. Lightning having been rendered ineffectual by the 'iron points invented by the sagacious Dr. Franklin,' Massachusetts was shaken by earthquakes, which Dr. Price perceived to be due to God's wrath at the 'iron points.' In a sermon on the subject he said, 'In Boston are more erected than elsewhere in New England, and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of God.' Apparently, however, Providence gave up all hope of curing Boston of its wickedness, for, though lightning-rods became more and more common, earthquakes in Massachusetts have remained rare.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish
Lightning has been tamed and made to do the bidding of man, and is constantly driven in delicate traces; and one may sit and hold communion with the antipodes of the earth.
ELLEN MARTIN
The Feet of Clay
Lightning and truth are two things that cannot be arrested in their onward course.
J. ELIZABETH JONES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Getting struck by lightning is like winning the lottery, except of course, not as lucky.
JAROD KINTZ
Seriously Delirious, But Not At All Serious
If you ever want your soul to dance in the clouds, you will at some point have to juggle lightning and taste the thunder.
CHRISTOPHER POINDEXTER
Remington Typewriter Poetry
God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention.
MARK TWAIN
letter to Orion Clemens, Mar. 23, 1878
At that instant a dazzling claw of lightning streaked down the length of the sky. The hedge and the distant trees seemed to leap forward in the brilliance of the flash. Immediately upon it came the thunder: a high, tearing noise, as though some huge thing were being ripped to pieces close above, which deepened and turned to enormous blows of dissolution. Then the rain fell like a waterfall. In a few seconds the ground was covered with water and over it, to a height of inches, rose a haze formed of a myriad minute splashes. Stupefied with the shock, unable even to move, the sodden rabbits crouched inert, almost pinned to the earth by the rain.
RICHARD ADAMS
Watership Down
Seize
Bolts of lightning from the sky
And plant them in fields of life.
They will grow like tender sprouts of fire.
Charge somber thoughts
With unexpected flash,
You, my lightning in the soil
VISAR ZHITI
"Sowing Lightning", The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry
I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.
KEN KESEY
attributed, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Lightning hides the colour of night.
MUNIA KHAN
"Six-words Stories", To Evince the Blue
Might the peasant expect the Almighty to stay the thunder storm, which clears the air of a nation from pestilence, lest the lightning bold should in its flash kill his cow?
GENERAL B. F. BUTLER
attributed, Day's Collacon
No mortal eye has ever fully seen a flash of lightning ... for no matter how firmly we look, our eyes are sure to be dazzled.
BERTHOLD AUERBACH
Little Barefoot
Tempests, and bright lightnings, are to be sung; their nature is to be told, and from what cause they pursue their course; lest, having foolishly divided the heaven into parts, you should be anxious as to the quarter from which the flying flame may come, or to what region it may betake itself; and tremble to think how it penetrates through walled enclosures, and how, having exercised its power, it extricates itself from them. Of which phenomena the multitude can by no means see the causes, and think that they are accomplished by supernatural power.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
The thunder and the lightning are inseparable.
APOCRYPHA
Enoch 60:14
The lightning is in God's hands, and it strikes just where He bids it.
AZEL STEVENS ROE
Looking Round
The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.
MARK TWAIN
Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays
Lightning strikes the tallest trees.
ENGLISH PROVERB
Hark! o'er the dread abyss the sea-bird screams--
The rocks resound--again the lightning gleams!
JOHN RAMSAY
"Dundonald Castle", Eglington Park Meeting and Other Poems