He a soldier, and knows not onion-seed from gun-powder? [ Proverb ]

Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry. [ Col. Blacker ]

Difficulty adds to result, as the ramming of powder sends the bullet the further. [ George MacDonald ]

Violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die; like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume. [ William Shakespeare ]

The petty cares, the minute anxieties, the infinite littles which go to make up the sum of human experience, like the invisible granules of powder, give the last and highest polish to a character. [ William Matthews ]

Intellect alone, however exalted, without strong feelings - without even, irritable sensibility - would be only like an immense magazine of powder, if there were no such element as fire in the natural world. It is the heart which is the spring and fountain of all eloquence. [ Lord Erskine ]

There are many persons of combative tendencies, who read for ammunition, and dig out of the Bible iron for balls. They read, and they find nitre and charcoal and sulphur for powder. They read, and they find cannon. They read, and they make portholes and embrasures. And if a man does not believe as they do, they look upon him as an enemy, and let fly the Bible at him to demolish him. So men turn the word of God into a vast arsenal, filled with all manner of weapons, offensive and defensive. [ H. W. Beecher ]