1610, Daniell Price, The Defence of Truth Against a booke falsely called The Triumph of Truth sent over from Arras A.D. 1609 by Humfrey Leech late Minister. […][1], Oxford, Lib. 2 Cap. 2, page 232:
...that there is so black liuor in your paper, ſeeing you had ſo white a liver at your ſpeech, I admire not much, ſeeing your fictiōs be great, though your Poetry none at all. You ſay you forbeare to adde fuell vnto the fire. S. Iames ſaith the tongue is a fire, but I finde that your pen is a fire, and yet but ignis fatuus
1817, Hansard of Great Britain, The Parliamentary history of England, volume 30:
[1794, February 25][…]While the French slaves were in a state of convulsion, it was very extraordinary to wish; by pouring in fresh slaves among them, to add fuel to the fire, and give them fresh reinforcements of mutineers; for such would the newly-imported slaves become.
1839, Charles Dodd, edited by Mark Aloysius Tierney, Dodd's Church History of England, volume 2:
But this had no effect, only to add fuel to the fire; so that, at last, both parties were so exasperated, that, had not the magistrates of Frankfort (who were now head of the English reformed church) interposed, they were on the point of coming to blows.
1891, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume 54:
[…] and to admit women into active participation in politics will certainly be to increase disorder and add fuel to the fire of strife.
1895, William Kingsford, The History of Canada, volume 8, page 10:
The first consul continued to add fuel to the fire.
2023 February 23, Patrick Wintour, “Germany and China clash over west’s supply of weapons to Ukraine”, in The Guardian[2], →ISSN:
The deputy Chinese envoy to the UN, Dai Bing, insisted the west was worsening the situation by arming Ukraine, saying: “Adding fuel to the fire will only exacerbate tensions”.
