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Quotes by Irish Authors

"I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet."
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Kenneth Branagh
"I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet."
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"At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of the island."
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John Millington Synge
"At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of the island."
"The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland."
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James Larkin
"The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland."
"I suppose you could say my father's world was Thomas Hardy and my mother's D.H. Lawrence."
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Seamus Heaney
"I suppose you could say my father's world was Thomas Hardy and my mother's D.H. Lawrence."
"Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest."
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Jonathan Swift
"Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest."
"It is a most disgraceful shame the way in which Irishmen are brought up. They are ashamed of their language, institutions, and of everything Irish."
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Douglas Hyde
"It is a most disgraceful shame the way in which Irishmen are brought up. They are ashamed of their language, institutions, and of everything Irish."
"I do enjoy working with writers."
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Neil Jordan
"I do enjoy working with writers."
"All publicity is good, except an obituary notice."
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Brendan Behan
"All publicity is good, except an obituary notice."
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27
"Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability."
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George Bernard Shaw
"Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability."
"It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare."
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Edmund Burke
"It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare."
"Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues."
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Oliver Goldsmith
"Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues."
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27
"Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results."
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Ernest Shackleton
"Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results."
"I see what I have to become and I recognise the time it will take."
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Chris Murray
"I see what I have to become and I recognise the time it will take."
"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality."
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Iris Murdoch
"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality."
"In France, a woman may forget that she is neither young nor handsome; for the absence of these claims to attention does not expose her to be neglected by the male sex."
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Marguerite Gardiner
"In France, a woman may forget that she is neither young nor handsome; for the absence of these claims to attention does not expose her to be neglected by the male sex."
"The American white relegates the black to the rank of shoeshine boy, and he concludes from this that the black is good for nothing but shining shoes."
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George Bernard Shaw
"The American white relegates the black to the rank of shoeshine boy, and he concludes from this that the black is good for nothing but shining shoes."
"You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?""
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George Bernard Shaw
"You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?""
"You're on earth. There's no cure for that."
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Samuel Beckett
"You're on earth. There's no cure for that."
"Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, may produce all the effects of drunkenness."
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Oscar Wilde
"Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, may produce all the effects of drunkenness."
"And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns."
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Thomas Moore
"And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns."
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"Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England - Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation."
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Charles Stewart Parnell
"Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England - Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation."
"Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable."
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Oscar Wilde
"Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable."
Man,
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26
"Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans."
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Bob Geldof
"Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans."
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"Like ships that have gone down at sea, when heaven was all tranquillity."
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Thomas Moore
"Like ships that have gone down at sea, when heaven was all tranquillity."
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"Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
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Oscar Wilde
"Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
"The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed."
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan
"The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed."
"You told me you had destroyed it.""I was wrong. It has destroyed me."
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Oscar Wilde
"You told me you had destroyed it.""I was wrong. It has destroyed me."
"Evil prospers when good men do nothing."
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John Philpot Curran
"Evil prospers when good men do nothing."
"They get up early, because they have so much to do, and go to bed early, because they have so little to think about."
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Oscar Wilde
"They get up early, because they have so much to do, and go to bed early, because they have so little to think about."
"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."
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George Bernard Shaw
"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."
"Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes."
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Oscar Wilde
"Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes."
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
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Oscar Wilde
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
"I enjoyed seven years at Wimbledon and there were high and low points."
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Kenny Cunningham
"I enjoyed seven years at Wimbledon and there were high and low points."
"It is assumed that the woman must wait motionless until she is wooed. That is how the spider waits for the fly."
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George Bernard Shaw
"It is assumed that the woman must wait motionless until she is wooed. That is how the spider waits for the fly."
"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship."
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George Bernard Shaw
"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship."
"Listening is a discipline. It's all about being present at that moment in time."
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Chris Murray
"Listening is a discipline. It's all about being present at that moment in time."
"The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny."
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Edmund Burke
"The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny."
"If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever."
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George Berkeley
"If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever."
"The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it."
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Oscar Wilde
"The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it."
"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
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Oscar Wilde
"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
"I'm proud of my Irish heritage and culture and this show will feature a lot of Irish dancing."
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Michael Flatley
"I'm proud of my Irish heritage and culture and this show will feature a lot of Irish dancing."
"Friendship will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long."
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Robert Lynd
"Friendship will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long."
"The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy."
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Oliver Goldsmith
"The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy."
"Theater is dangerously open to repetition. It's exciting when you hit on a new way."
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Fiona Shaw
"Theater is dangerously open to repetition. It's exciting when you hit on a new way."
"How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
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William Butler Yeats
"How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
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"I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy."
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John McGahern
"I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy."
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"A part of sexuality may go to research, and a much larger part must lead to aesthetic creation. The art of the future will, because of the very opportunities and materials it will have at its command, need an infinitely stronger formative impulse than it does now."
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John Desmond Bernal
"A part of sexuality may go to research, and a much larger part must lead to aesthetic creation. The art of the future will, because of the very opportunities and materials it will have at its command, need an infinitely stronger formative impulse than it does now."
"There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong."
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Daniel O'Connell
"There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong."
"We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate."
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George William Russell
"We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate."
"That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers."
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Francis Hutcheson
"That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers."
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