We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over from James Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson, published in 1791. The quotation helps Montag understand his relationship with the mysterious Clarisse, who brings joy into his life for no obvious reason.
That favorite subject. Myself. taken from a letter of the British biographer James Boswell, dated July 16, 1763. The quotation emphasizes the chasm that separates Montag from Mildred, who shuns self-analysis and submerges herself in drugs and the television programs that sedate her mind.
half out of the cave Bradbury alludes to Plato’s cave allegory, found in Book 7 of his Republic. The analogy describes how people rely on flickering shadows as their source of reality.
Faber the character’s name suggests that of Peter Faber (1506–1545), tutor of Ignatius Loyola and founder of two Jesuit colleges.
Mr. Jefferson? Mr. Thoreau? Thomas Jefferson, the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, and Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden and Civil Disobedience. This phrase is used to illustrate that all books and authors are valuable. These two authors are chosen to show who wrote about revolution and fighting opression.
dentrifice any preparation for cleaning teeth. This word is part of the phrase that Montag hears repeatedly in the subway.
Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they In his surreal dash on the subway toward Faber’s house, Montag tries to read a line from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of St. Matthew. The line, which is taken from Chapter 6, verses 28–29, concludes, “And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” This quotation reminds Montag that spiritual hunger is greater than material need.
Caesar’s praetorian guard a reference to the bodyguards that surrounded the Roman Caesars, beginning with Rome’s first emperor, Octavian, later named Augustus. While holding back the mob, the praetorians wielded supreme control over the rulers who they sought to protect, and they are thought to have assassinated Caligula and replaced him with Claudius, a crippled historian who was their choice of successor.
the salamander devours its tail Faber, who creates a way to implicate firemen in their own menace and therefore eradicate them, characterizes his plot with an image of self-destruction.
this electronic cowardice Faber, an old man who is too fearful to confront Captain Beatty, is willing to direct Montag’s confrontation through his electronic listening and speaking device.
The Book of Job Faber selects this book of the Old Testament, which describes how Job is tested by God. The upshot of Job’s struggle with suffering, loss, and temptation is that he learns to trust.
Vesuvius a volcano near Naples that erupted August 24, 79 A.D., burying the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Cheshire cat a grinning cat, a character from Chapter 6 of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
In again out again Finnegan a common nonsense rhyme indicating Mrs. Phelps’ lack of concern about the war and her husband’s part in it. The quotation restates “Off again, on again, gone again, Finnegan,” a terse telegram about a rail crash from Finnegan (a railroad boss) to Flanagan (his employer).
fire plus water Montag, who perceives the split halves of his being, anticipates the distillation of his fiery self into wine after Faber has molded his intellect with wisdom and teaching.
Who are a little wise, the best fools be a line from John Donne’s poem “The Triple Fool,” which Beatty uses to confuse and stifle Montag.
the sheep returns to the fold. We’re all sheep who have strayed at times Beatty alludes to the prophecy in Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned ever one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The message implies that Montag has betrayed his fellow firemen.
Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning Beatty’s montage of quotations rambles on to a verse from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Act V, Scene i, Line 45.
They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts a verse taken from Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, which in turn paraphrases a line from Beaumont and Fletcher’s Love’s Cure, Act III, Scene iii.
Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge a line from Sir Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesy.
Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found Beatty quotes a couplet from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism as cynical commentary on his profusely garbled and contradictory recitation.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again a famous pair of couplets from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism, which warns the learner that scholarship requires dedication for maximum effect.
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force an aphorism from Chapter 13 of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas.
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty an aphorism from Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Idler.
Truth will come to light, murder will not be hid long! from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene ii, Line 86.
Oh God, he speaks only of his horse a paraphrase of “he doth nothing but talk of his horse” from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene ii, Lines 37–38.
The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene iii, Line 99.
This age thinks better of a gilded fool, than of a threadbare saint in wisdom’s school a couplet from Thomas Dekker’s Old Fortunatus.
The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting a line from Ben Jonson’s Catiline’s Conspiracy, Act III, Scene ii.
Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer a line from Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, Part I, Section I, Member 2, Subsection 5.
trench mouth an infectious disease characterized by ulceration of the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat and caused by a bacterium; derived from its prevalence among soldiers in trenches.
Knowledge is power a line from Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, Book I, i, 3.
A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees the furthest of the two from Democritus to the Reader, Robert Burton’s paraphrase from Lucan’s Civil War, which is echoed in Sir Isaac Newton’s letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675 or 1676.
The folly of mistaking a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself as an oracle is inborn in us a paraphrase of Paul Valery’s Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci.
A kind of excellent dumb discourse a line from Shakespeare’s Tempest, Act III, Scene iii, Line 38.
All’s well that is well in the end a paraphrase of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, Act IV, Scene iv, Line 35.
the tyranny of the majority from John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton’s History of Freedom and Other Essays.
