Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning.

Bernard Mickey Wrangle had developed a psychological test of his own. It was short, simple, and infallible. To administer the test, merely ask the subject to n…

'This is the way to burn,' the fuse seemed to be saying to the more docile, slow-witted candlewick. 'Brilliantly, ecstatically, irrepressibly. This is the way …

If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly va…

O to be a dragon, a symbol of the power of Heaven - of silkworm size or immense; at times invisible. Felicitous phenomenon!

You can blow out a candle But you can't blow out a fire Once the flames begin to catch The wind will blow it higher

For the love of God, for the love of your children and of the civilization to which you belong, cease this madness. You are mortal men. You are capable of erro…