These top 200 fire quotes are sure to ignite something in you—pushing you to power through your day, anytime and anywhere.
So, if you’re in need of a little something that will light you up, you definitely need to check this list out.
Fire brings heat and warmth into our lives, and is used for many practical day-to-day chores. However, fire is also a metaphor to concretize passion, emotions, intentions, and many more.
Take a look at what famous authors, philosophers, and many more amazing people have to say about fire.
Start reading the full list here.
Best Fire Quotes
1. “Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.” – Martha Graham
2. “The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than them.” – Chinese Proverb
3. “One can enjoy a wood fire worthily only when he warms his thoughts by it as well as his hands and feet.” – Odell Shepherd
4. “Playing with fire is bad for those who burn themselves. For the rest of us, it is a very great pleasure.” – Jerry Smith
5. “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski
6. “He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient.” – W.J. Cameron
7. “A man can be short, and dumpy, and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.” – Mae West
8. “Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn—exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared.” – Otto Weininger
9. “The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.” – Henry David Thoreau
Famous Fire Quotes
10. “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” – Buddha
11. “As soon as you kindle fire with snow, seek to quench the fire of love with words.” – William Shakespeare
12. “The deepest lessons come out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires.” – Elisabeth Elliot
13. “If these little sparks of holy fire which I have thus heaped up together do not give life to your prepared and already enkindled spirit, yet they will sometimes help to entertain a thought, to actuate a passion, to employ and hallow a fancy.” – Jeremy Taylor
14. “If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid seeing yourself in the mirror, because I bet that’s what really throws you into a panic.” – Jack Handey
15. “Fire in the heart sends smoke into the head.” – Proverb
16. “The United States is like a giant boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there is no limit to the power it can generate.” – Winston Churchill
17. “Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” – Arnold Glascow
18. “Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves.” – Laura Esquivel
19. “Big fires flare up in the wind, but little ones are blown out unless they are carried in under cover.” – St. Frances De Sales
20. “Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.” – Amit Ray
21. “A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” – Benjamin Franklin
22. “The fire was followed by a period of grieving and then by an incredible lightness, freedom, and mobility.” – Martin Puryear
23. “Man is the only creature that dares to light a fire and live with it. The reason? Because he alone has learned to put it out.” – Henry Jackson Vandyke
24. “We seek the fire of the spark that is already within us.” – Kamand Kojouri
Short Fire Quotes
25. “Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all.” – William Shakespeare
26. “Fire is the most tolerable third party.” – Henry David Thoreau
27. “Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together.” – Proverb
28. “The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” – Ferdinand Foch
29. “Fire is never a gentle master.” – Proverb
30. “The fires of suffering become the light of consciousness.” – Eckhart Tolle
31. “Fire, water, and the government know nothing of mercy.” – Proverb
32. “The most tangible of all visible mysteries—fire.” – Leigh Hunt
33. “Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.” – Mark Twain
34. “Where there is smoke, there is fire.” – Proverb
35. “Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from the Eternal.” – Dante Alighieri
36. “Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” – Benjamin Disraeli
37. “Don’t start a fire you can’t quench.” – Anonymous
38. “Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.” – Cormac Mccarthy
39. “Genius is talent set on fire by courage.” – Henry Van Dyke
Inspirational Fire Quotes
40. “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” – Albert Schweitzer
41. “To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world.” – Charles Dudley Warner
42. “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining—they just shine.” – Dwight L. Moody
43. “Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.” – Jean de la Fontaine
44. “One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.” – John Foster
45. “I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” – Mia Hamm
46. “The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.” – Richard M. Nixon
47. “Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.” – Terry Pratchett
48. “Sometimes, what’s dead must be burned away to make room for new life.” – Cristen Rodgers
49. “Light the fire within you to light the world with your fire.” – P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
Beautiful Fire Quotes
50. “A book, too, can be a star—a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.” – Madeleine L’Engle
51. “Good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix—the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can’t stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that’s a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!” – C. JoyBell C.
52. “We each have a special something we can get only at a special time of our life—like a small flame. A careful, fortunate few cherish that flame. Nurture it, hold it as a torch to light their way. But once that flame goes out, it’s gone forever.” – Haruki Murakami
53. “She’s mad, but she’s magic. There’s no lie in her fire.” – Charles Bukowski
54. “I threw myself into that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.” – Sarah H. Maas
55. “Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So deadly. Left alone, they lit and warmed.” – Brandon Sanderson
56. “Love, like fire, goes out without fuel.” – Mikhail Lermontov
57. “When she awoke, the world was on fire.” – Scott Westerfield
58. “Fire understood, and almost could not believe, that the feeling he was sending her was love.” – Kristin Cashore
59. “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” – Gustav Mahler
Passionate Fire Quotes
60. “The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one—through their excess.” – Christian Nestell Bovee
61. “Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.” – E. E. Cummings
62. “Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
63. “Light up the fire of love inside and blaze the thoughts away.” – Rumi
64. “Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.” – Vincent Van Gogh
65. “I have a need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt.” – William Lloyd Garrison
66. “Become the person you were meant to be—light your inner fire and follow your heart’s desire.” – Leon Brown
67. “Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can actually live.” – Susanne Katherina Langer
68. “Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it.” – Mary Lou Retton
69. “To love is to burn—to be on fire.” – Jane Austen
70. “Find your fire.” – Anonymous
71. “Pride, envy, avarice—these are the sparks that have set on fire the hearts of all men.” – Dante Alighieri
72. “So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.” – George Orwell
73. “I had so much fire in me and so many plans.” – Claude Monet
74. “Like the tender fires of stars, moments of their life together that no one knew of or would ever know of, broke upon and illuminated his memory.” – James Joyce
Fire Quotes About Having Faith
75. “A church can be unified in one of two ways. You can freeze together, as the Church of the Frozen Chosen; or you can melt together with the fire of the Holy Spirit.” – John Hagee
76. “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
77. “O for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.” – William Shakespeare
78. “If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” – Charles Bukowski
79. “You have to go through the fires to be tested by faith.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
80. “Every revolution begins with a spark.” – Anonymous
81. “Never let your inner fire burn out.” – Anonymous
82. “The sacred fire is faith.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
83. “My imagination completely controls me, and forever feeds the fire that burns with dark red light in my heart by bringing me the best dreams. I’ve always had a wild imagination, a big heart, and a tortured soul so I feel that dark fantasy, love and horror are in my blood.” – Kim Elizabeth
84. “Sometimes, God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.” – Joel Osteen
Fire Quotes That Are Full of Wisdom
85. “While I was looking the other way, your fire went out—left me with cinders to kick into dust. What a waste of the wonder you were. In my living fire, I will keep your scorn and mine. In my living fire, I will keep your heartache and mine at the disgrace of a waste of a life.” – Kristin Cashore
86. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch
87. “If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.” – Robert Fulghum
88. “Don’t let your dreams go up in smoke—practice fire safety.” – Anonymous
89. “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo
90. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William Butler Yeats
91. “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all.” – Ayn Rand
92. “Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.” – Delmore Schwartz
93. “Most people guard against going into the fire, and so end up in it.” – Rumi
94. “To those who do not know that the world is on fire, I have nothing to say.” – Bertolt Brecht
95. “If you can’t handle her fire, let someone else enjoy the flames.” – Anonymous
96. “Ability without ambition is like kindling wood without the spark.” – Anonymous
97. “Burn not your house to rid it of the mouse.” – Latin proverb
98. “Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.” – Bernard Williams
99. “A candle can only illuminate its world by allowing itself to be set on fire.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
Powerful Fire Quotes
100. “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” – Maya Angelou
101. “Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.” – Rumi
102. “A spark, neglected, makes a mighty fire.” – Robert Herrick
103. “It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” – Frederick Douglass
104. “Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.” – Roy L. Smith
105. “A small match lights a big fire.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
106. “I have a dream—a dream to write a fire. Fire that would burn till ages.” – Kuldeep Gera
107. “The wind forgets, but the flame remembers.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
108. “Never start a fire, especially if there is no water nearby.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
109. “Fire is the illuminator, the protector, the destroyer, and the giver of all life.” – Thomas Lloyd
Poetic Fire Quotes
110. “Time is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.” – Jorge Luis Borges
111. “The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction, robs the vast seas. The moon’s an arrant thief, and her pale fire, she snatches from the sun.” – William Shakespeare
112. “A small spark can start a great fire.” – Emmet Fox
113. “Each person shines with his or her own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames and little flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames are so still they don’t even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t look at them without blinking, and if you approach you shine in the fire.” – Eduardo Galeano
114. “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires.” – William Shakespeare
115. “A thought often makes us hotter than a fire.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
116. “The fire doesn’t make you what you are; it reveals what you were.” – Jack Hyles
117. “Pressure creates diamonds. Fire refines gold.” – Anonymous
118. “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough to hate to say that for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice.” – Robert Frost
119. “Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.” – Thomas Fuller
Fire Quotes About Resilience
120. “What fire does not destroy, it hardens.” – Oscar Wilde
121. “The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.” – Carl Jung
122. “I’m the only fire that can live in the rain.” – Lil Wayne
123. “People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.” – Abigail Van Buren
124. “Do not let your fire go out. Do not let the hero in your soul perish. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” – Ayn Rand
125. “The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire.” – Cus D’Amato
126. “The only real security is the ability to build your own fires and find your own peace.” – Audrey Sutherland
127. “I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.” – Joshua Graham
128. “Some women fear the fire. Some women simply become it.” – Anonymous
129. “I am not a tree grown in the concrete jungle to bring rain. I am a tree grown in the wild forest to bring fire.” – P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
Fire Quotes on Life
130. “Catch fire. Do something. Get excited by finding your purpose in life.” – Steve Harvey
131. “One fire burns out another’s burning. One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.” – William Shakespeare
132. “Kindle your own fire within your spirit.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
133. “Seek what sets your soul on fire.” – Anonymous
134. “Distance does to love what wind does to fire—extinguishes the weak and feeds the strong.” – Anonymous
135. “The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.” – Mark Twain
136. “Heat makes things expand; that is why life sometimes throws us into a fiery furnace.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
137. “At times, there will be fire; this we can’t avoid. But it’s up to us to decide whether it will consume or it will purify.” – Cristen Rodgers
138. “I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.” – Kurt Vonnegut
139. “So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.” – Gaston Bachelard
Fire Quotes About Living Wisely
140. “If you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.” – Bam Bam Bigelow
141. “I did mostly good things, except light things on fire.” – Mark Hoppus
142. “If your house is burning, wouldn’t you try and put out the fire?” – Imran Khan
143. “A spark can set a whole forest on fire. Just a spark. Save it.” – Charles Bukowski
144. “If you continue to work hard, let that be the fuel to your fire.” – Pitbull
145. “When the heart is on fire, some sparks will fly out of the mouth.” – Thomas Fuller
146. “Fire does transform, but the fire within is always better than fire beneath!” – Harrish Sairaman
147. “It is with our passions as it is with fire and water, they are good servants, but bad masters.” – Aesop
148. “Honest criticism means nothing—what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire.” – Henry Miller
149. “When the burning coal stops emitting the smoke, then you will surely understand that the fire does not always need the presence of the smoke.” – Mwanamke Kindembo
Fire Quotes on Love
150. “Friends are like coals in a fire—together, they glow; apart, they grow cold.” – C. S. Lewis
151. “To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.” – Pablo Neruda
152. “I came to set fire to the earth. And I am watchful that the fire grows. May the fire of love grow in our hearts. May the fire of transformation glow in our movements. May the fire of purification burn away our sins. May the fire of justice guide our steps. May the fire of wisdom illuminate our paths. May the fire that spreads over the Earth never be extinguished.” – Paulo Coelho
153. “Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” – Joan Crawford
154. “Absence is to love as wind is to fire—it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.” – Umberto Eco
155. “Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing, and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” – Ann Landers
156. “Affection is a coal that must be cooled; else, suffered, it will set the heart on fire.” – William Shakespeare
157. “A woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart.” – William Shakespeare
158. “Of all the fires, love is the only inexhaustible one.” – Pablo Neruda
159. “This is how the fire starts. This is how we burn.” – Libba Bray
160. “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
161. “Everything inside is on fire when I am with you.” – Anonymous
162. “I need someone who sees the fire in my eyes and wants to play with it.” – Anonymous
163. “Love is the only candle whose flame is eternally lit.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
164. “You, darkness that I come from, I love you more than all the fires that fence in the world.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
Witty Fire Quotes
165. “It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott
166. “Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.” – Jean-Michel Basquiat
167. “Don’t lose your fire.” – Anonymous
168. “One afternoon, when I was four years old, my father came home, and he found me in the living room in front of a roaring fire, which made him very angry. Because we didn’t have a fireplace.” – Victor Borge
169. “Fire takes no holiday.” – Anonymous
170. “Shoot me with hate, and I’ll fire back with love.” – Anonymous
171. “Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.” – Livy
172. “There were never butterflies, just fire.” – Anonymous
173. “Ladies who play with fire must remember that smoke gets in their eyes.” – Anonymous
174. “Fires all go out eventually.” – Anonymous
Fire Quotes About Following Your Dreams and Desires
175. “Figure out what lights your fire. Then chase the match.” – Anonymous
176. “Desire is a bonfire that burns with greater fury, asking for more fuel.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba
177. “I am like fire; if you take care of me I’ll brighten your life, but if you play with me you’ll burn.” – Anonymous
178. “Have a dream, chase it down, jump over every single hurdle, and run through fire and ice to get there.” – Whitney Wolfe
179. “I didn’t want anybody seeing my fire until I burned them with it.” – Cameron Conaway
Fire Quotes on Emotion and Attraction
180. “Emotions can be said to be the fire of attraction and repulsion between human beings.” – Anonymous
181. “Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.” – Charles Wesley
182. “There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.” – Buddha
183. “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” – Helen Keller
184. “You fire a guy, you create a rival. You fire a woman, you create a housewife.” – Anonymous
Motivational Fire Quotes
185. “Motivation is like fire unless you keep adding fuel to it, it dies. Your fuel is your belief in your inner values.” – Anonymous
186. “When the winter comes, fire becomes a king!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
187. “The future of the world belongs to the youth of the world, and it is from the youth and not from the old that the fire of life will warm and enlighten the world. It is your privilege to breathe the breath of life into the dry bones of many around you.” – Tom Mann
188. “We feel free when we escape, even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.” – Eric Hoffer
189. “My passion and fire run deep through my veins, my blood. There’s no doubt about that.” – Carolyn Aronson
190. “Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.” – Robert Greene
191. “Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a gossip.” – Richard Steele
192. “Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits.” – William Hazzlit
193. “You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” – Bob Nelson
194. “Clay is a very interesting and fundamental material—it’s earth, it’s water; and with fire, it takes on form and life.” – Rithy Panh
Other Fire Quotes That Might Interest You
195. “The proof of gold is fire, the proof of woman, gold; the proof of man, a woman.” – Benjamin Franklin
196. “When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battlefield, they have all one rank in my eyes.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
197. “Tact is the art of building a fire under people without making their blood boil.” – Franklin P. Jones
198. “Nothing I am sure has such a tendency to quench the fire of religion as the possession of money.” – J. C. Ryle
199. “The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.” – Pamela Hansford Johnson
200. “Man needs colour to live; it’s just as necessary an element as fire and water.” – Fernand Leger
Did These Fire Quotes Ignite Something In You?
What are the things you’re passionate about? What drives you forward? What keeps you going in life? These are all questions that lead us to understanding the fire within ourselves.
There’s nothing like working on something you’re passionate about—and the fire within us is so unique. They tell us so much about ourselves and the people around us. What’s more, they motivate us to continue working hard.
As long as that fire within us is lit up, there’s no stopping us. We’ll be able to achieve everything we want as long as the fire within us keeps us going. May it be about our dreams, love, or hobbies, everything is just more fun and fulfilling if it’s something that we enjoy doing.
Are your favorite fire quotes included in our list? Which ones really made an impact on you? Share what drives you forward by commenting down below.
