For where's the state beneath the Firmament,
That doth excell the Bees for Government? [ Du Bartas ]

Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,
One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine. [ Longfellow ]

Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. [ Daniel Webster ]

The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament. [ Bovee ]

A wise man shall overrule his stars, and have a greater influence upon his own content than all the constellations and planets of the firmament. [ Jeremy Taylor ]

With a clear sky, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze, you have friends in plenty; but let fortune frown, and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will prove like the strings of the lute, of which you tighten ten before you find one that will bear the stretch and keep the pitch. [ Gotthold ]

The golden ripple on the wall came back again, and nothing else stirred in the room. The old, old fashion! The fashion that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The old, old fashion, - Death! Oh, thank God, all who see it, for that older fashion yet, - of Immortality! [ Charles Dickens ]