Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Fire
A little fire burns up a great deal of corn.
A little fire is quickly trodden out,
Which being suffered rivers cannot quench.Shakespeare.
A small fire that warms you is better than a large one that burns you.Danish.
Any water will put out fire.French, Italian.
Fire and straw soon make a flame.Danish.
Fire and water are good servants but bad masters.
Fire and water are two good servants.German.
Fire drives the wasp out of its nest.Italian.
Fire in flax will smoke.
Fire is not quenched with fire.Italian.
Fire is not quenched with tow.
Green wood makes a hot fire.
He carries fire and water.French.
He carries fire in the one hand and water in the other.
He that will have fire must bear with smoke.Dutch, Danish.
If you want fire look for it in the ashes.German.
It is a good fire when the neighbor gives the wood.German.
It is as bad to spit out the fire and be ashamed as to swallow it and be burned.Danish.
It is bad to be between two fires.Danish.
It is good to warm one’s self by another’s fire.Dutch.
It never smokes but there is a fire.
It won’t do to trifle with fire.French.
Kindle not a fire you cannot extinguish.
More fuel, more fire.Chinese.
No fire without smoke.French.
Put out the fire betimes before it reach the roof.German.
Saft fire maks sweet mawt.
Soft fire makes sweet malt.
The fire heeds little whose cloak it burns.Danish.
The fire is welcome when icicles hang without.Danish.
The fire of London was a punishment for gluttony.
The fire that burneth taketh the heat out of a burn.
The fire that does not warm me shall never scorch me.
The fire which lighteth us at a distance will burn us when near.
The most covered fire is always the most glowing.French.
The one kindles the fire, the other blows it. (One begins the evil, the other increases it.)Modern Greek.
The same fire purifies gold and consumes straw.Italian.
There is no fire without smoke.Danish.
There is no quenching of fire with tow.
There is no smoke without fire.
They who shun the smoke often fall into the fire.Italian.
To cast oil into the fire is not the way to quench it.
To save your house from neighboring fire is hard.Ovid.
When the next house is on fire it is high time to look to your own.
When there is a fire in the neighborhood carry water to your own house.Italian.
Where there’s fire there’s smoke.Spanish.
Who hath skirts of straw must needs fear the fire.
Who wants fire let him look for it in the ashes.Dutch.