He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha, and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Job 39:24^5.

   Damn them, see how the rascals use me! They will not let my play run, and yet they steal my thunder!

-Dennis,John
  Attributed, when watching a production of Macbeth that featured a thunder machine he had designed for use in his own play  Appius and Virginia, which had been denied a long run. Said to be the origin of the phrase'to steal one's thunder'.

There was silence in the room. Then a voice, stunning as thunder, clear and common as a trainwhistleöthe voice of a ball-park announcer: 'If you build it, he will come.'

-Kinsella,W(illiam) P(atrick)
  'Shoeless  Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa', a short story later expanded into the novel Shoeless Joe (1982) and filmed as Field of Dreams (1989).

When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunder In such lovely language.

-Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert)
  'When I Read Shakespeare'.

To create forms means: to live. Are not children more creative in drawing directly from the secret of their sensations than the imitator of Greek forms? Are not savages artists who have forms of their own powerful as the form of thunder?

-Macke, August
  The Blaue Reiter Almanac.

He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no,öwhy, theyare in the happy condition of judicious, unencumbered travellers in Europe; they crossthe frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet bag.

-Melville, Herman
  Of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I asked you to be the thunder and lightning of Desert Storm.You were all of that and more.

-Schwarzkopf, H Norman
  Message to US units on the cease-fire that ended the Gulf War.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under, And then again I dissolve it in rain, And laugh as I pass in thunder.

-Shelley, Percy Bysshe
  'The Cloud'.

Glorious the northern lights astream; Glorious the song, when God's the theme; Glorious the thunder's roar: Glorious hosanna from the den; Glorious the catholic amen; Glorious the martyr's gore.

-Smart, Christopher
  A Song to David, stanza 85.

There lies the port; the vessel, puffs her sail: There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with meö That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheadsöyou and I are old: Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices.Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows: for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides: and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and hearth: that which we are, we are: One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

-Tennyson
  Poems,'Ulysses' (published1842), l.44^70.

Shall gods be said to thump the clouds When clouds are cursed by thunder?

-Thomas, Dylan Marlais
  'Shall Gods be Said toThump the Clouds'.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquillity; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea: Listen! the mighty being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunderöeverlastingly.

-Wordsworth,William
  'It is a beauteous evening calm and free', l.1^8 (published 1807).