Date: 1775

An "unquenchable" spark may glow within the breast and blaze into freedom

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

Date: 1775

"BLEST Bard! to whom the Muses, grateful, gave / That pipe which erft their deareft Spenser won, / As once they found thee, pensive and alone, / Strewing sweet flow'rs upon his hallow'd grave; / Then bad thy fancy glow with sacred fire, / And softest airs thy rural verse inspire."

— Mulso [later Chapone], Hester (1727-1801)

Date: 1776-1789

"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1776-1789

"The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations"

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: December 10, 1776; 1777

"But I am persuaded, that scarce a poet is to be found, from Homer down to Dryden, who preserved a sound mind in a sound body, and continued practising his profession to the very last, whose later works are not as replete with the fire of imagination, as those which were produced in...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1777

"How cruel is it to extinguish by neglect or unkindness, the precious sensibility of an open temper, to chill the amiable glow of an ingenous soul, and to quench the bright flame of a noble and generous spirit!"

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"If I may be allowed to change the allusion so soon, I would say, that the passions also resemble fires, which are friendly and beneficial when under proper direction, but if suffered to blaze without restraint, they carry devastation along with them, and, if totally extinguished, leave the benig...

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777

"People do not always know what taste they have, till it is awakened by some corresponding object; nay, genius itself is a fire, which in many minds would never blaze, if not kindled by some external cause."

— More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Date: 1777, 1810

"While thus he ranges unconfined, / And glory fires his ardent mind."

— Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

Date: 1778

The "pure flame" of virtue is planted "by an unerring rule" and glows in the heart

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)