“The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.”

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.

By logic and reason we die hourly; by imagination we live.

Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!

A statesman is an easy man, he tells his lies by rote. A journalist invents his lies, and rams them down your throat. So stay at home and drink your beer and let the neighbors vote.

Mysticism has been in the past and probably ever will be one of the great powers of the world and it is bad scholarship to pretend the contrary.

It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.

Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.

One should say before sleeping: I have lived many lives. I have been a slave and a prince. Many a beloved has sat upon my knee and I have sat upon the knees of many a beloved. Everything that has been shall be again.

Everything exists, everything is true and the earth is just a bit of dust beneath our feet.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

All men live in suffering I know as few can know, Whether they take the upper road Or stay content on the low.

Everything in nature is resurrection.

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.

In dreams begin responsibilitiy.

Where there is nothing, there is God.

Religion was nearly dead because there was no longer real belief in future life; but something was struggling to take its place – service – social service – the ants creed, the bees creed.

I thought, briefly, that I would never feel as intensely connected to the world, to another human being, as I did at that moment.

The essence of being human is that, in the brief moment we exist on this spinning planet, we can love some persons and some things, in spite of the fact that time and death will ultimately claim us all.

He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

But only a brief moment is granted to the brave one breath or two, whose wage is the long nights of the grave.

Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.

No man pleases by silence; many I please by speaking briefly.

In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.