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Quotes by Irish Authors
"Weak? Oh, I am sick of hearing that phrase. Sick of using it about others. Weak? Do you really think, that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not-there is no weakness in that. There is a horrible, terrible courage. I had that courage."
"I want you to start realising how far away you are from being able to listen professionally."
"All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind."
"A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold."
"Trust me. If you do not decide where you are heading, and refuse to take the appropriate action, you will end up being shaped into what others would have you become. Then any change will not be made for your benefit but for theirs."
"Each step of your current journey will take you to new and interesting worlds of opportunity and as every intrepid explorer knows, when one visits strange new lands one must be aware of their customs."
"The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less."
"Our life is made up of time; our days are measured in hours, our pay measured by those hours, our knowledge is measured by years. We grab a few quick minutes in our busy day to have a coffee break. We rush back to our desks, we watch the clock, we live by appointments. And yet your time eventually runs out and you wonder in your heart of hearts if those seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and decades were being spent the best way they possibly could. In other words, if you could change anything, would you?"
"So open questions to understand. Closed questions to confirm and gain commitment."
"Waking up with a bad head in the morning is difficult sometimes."
"I have some women friends but I prefer men. Don't trust women. There is a built-in competition between women."
"One should not lose one's temper unless one is certain of getting more and more angry to the end."
"People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera."
"A mind at liberty to reflect on its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to the world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself."
"Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England - Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation."
"Our memories are independent of our wills. It is not so easy to forget."
"Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood."
"Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it."
"What's a Dullahan?''He's a headless horseman, in the service of the banshee.''Headless?''Yes.''Seriously?''Yes.''So he has no head?''That's usually what headless means.''No head at all?''You're really getting hung up on this headless thing, aren't you?''It's just kind of silly, even for us.''Yet you spend your days with a living skeleton.''But at least he has a head.''True.''He even has a spare."
"We are all the foolishness and all the crimes we did. We're also all the kindnesses we did. I hate to think of life as if we understood time. We don't understand time."
"The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it."
"I love you.''Yeah, well...''You make my heart want to beat.''That's nice and creepy. But I'm with Fletcher.(...) Also, these proclamations of your undying love for me are getting kind of... it's a bit much to be honest. Just hold back a little.''But my love for you is eternal.''That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about."
"Cruelty would be delicious if one could only find some sort of cruelty that didn't really hurt."
"There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature."
"You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland's history in their lineaments trace; think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends."
"You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else."
"The most difficult thing is the organization of people and the expression of your intentions. It's very easy to have a picture in your head and to imagine that you've told everybody about what you need."
"Season number seven! It's been so exciting for us. When we first began, we were like the little train that could... and we did! We're terribly excited! It will be an interesting season for us, I think."
"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
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