Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Flint
The fire i’ the flint
Shows not till it be struck.
Shakespeare.—Timon of Athens, Act I. Scene 1. (Poet.)
O, Cassius, you are yoked to a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.
Shakespeare.—Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Scene 3. (Brutus to Cassius.)
So stubborn flints their inward heat conceal,
Till art and force th’ unwilling sparks reveal.
Congreve.—To Dryden on his Poems, last lines but two.