Date: April 30, 1730

"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn

Date: Saturday, Aug. 3, 1754; 1756

"As for Instance, when the Poet says of Dido, that she is devoured by an inward Flame."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: July 12, 2013

"The disheartening fact is that for every college professor who made Shakespeare or Lawrence come alive for the lucky few—the British scholar Frank Kermode kindled Shakespeare into an eternal flame in my head—there were countless others who made the reading of literary masterpieces seem like two ...

— Siegel, Lee (b. 1957)

Date: January 12, 2018

"He also shared some thoughts about James Comey--if, by thoughts, you mean the products of the dying sparks of sputtering synapses."

— Pierce, Charles P. (b. 1953)