Philip Jacques de Loutherbourg, “Coalbrookdale by Night” (1801), oil on canvas, 68 x 107 cm, Science Museum, London (image via Web Gallery of Art)
Among all of Donald Trump’s reckless and dangerous acts since he took office, this week’s repeal of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which effectively removes the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement — a move opposed even by ExxonMobil — is globally the most reckless and dangerous.
He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.
—Benjamin Franklin
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
—Romans 12:20 (KJV)
Football is a game designed to keep coal miners off the streets.
—Jimmy Breslin
She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
“I thought you’d never say hello,” she said
“You look like the silent type”
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue—Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up In Blue”
Profits on the exchange are the treasures of goblins. At one time they may be carbuncle stones, then coals, then diamonds, then flint stones, then morning dew, then tears.
—Lope de Vega
I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black—Keith Richards & Mick Jagger, “Paint It Black”
I am walking over hot coals suspended over a deep pit at the bottom of which are a large number of vipers baring their fangs.
—John Major
Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.
—Henry Ward Beecher
