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Quotes by Irish Authors
"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants."
"What Ireland needs now above all else is peace."
"Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious."
"I call on everyone of goodwill both in Ireland and abroad to join now in ensuring that the beginning of peace becomes a reality, before this year is out. Let us together open a new era in our history."
"I like to think I'm a listener, and I'm fascinated by observing people - I suppose you just lock that in."
"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips."
"That's healthy and good for us that there are people who are prepared to question what we are doing."
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."
"Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else."
"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."
"It is only about things that do not interest one, that one can give a really unbiassed opinion; and this is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always valueless."
"Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity."
"Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get."
"Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own."
"What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.' So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read."
"The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork."
"Still, he figured, sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, and then sometimes you've just got to run like hell after it's done."
"Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you."
"Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow."
"Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal."
"I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday."
"Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
"I cannot choose one hundred best books because I have only written five."
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
"High hopes were once formed of democracy, but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."
"You find my words dark. Darkness is in our souls, do you not think?"
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