"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable"
About this Quote
The image progression does the real work. Flame is "pretty", "hot and fierce", and also "only light and flickering" - a brutal little demotion. Early intensity isn’t dismissed, but it’s treated as unreliable theater: bright, attention-grabbing, easily blown out. The subtext is a warning to people who confuse spectacle for stability. If you chase only the blaze, you’ll keep mistaking smoke for commitment.
Then Lee pivots to coals: less photogenic, more consequential. "Our hearts mature" quietly makes love a joint project, not a private feeling. Maturity here implies training - the same ethos behind Lee’s public persona in the early 1970s, when he sold Western audiences an Eastern-inflected philosophy of self-cultivation. Coals "deep-burning and unquenchable" suggests a heat that survives weather, routine, even boredom. It’s also an argument for longevity as proof: real love stops performing and starts sustaining.
In an era that increasingly markets romance as instant chemistry, Lee’s metaphor insists on a different status symbol: endurance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Romantic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lee, Bruce. (2026, January 14). Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/love-is-like-a-friendship-caught-on-fire-in-the-30341/
Chicago Style
Lee, Bruce. "Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/love-is-like-a-friendship-caught-on-fire-in-the-30341/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/love-is-like-a-friendship-caught-on-fire-in-the-30341/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.











