James Stephens quotes

" Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. " # Fear # Courage # Curiosity

" A woman is a branchy tree and man a singing wind; and from her branches carelessly he takes what he can find. " # Men and Women # Love # Action

" Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it, said the Philosopher. " # Perfection # Philosophers and Philosophy # Self-interest

" Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself. " # Originality

" Because our lives are cowardly and sly, Because we do not dare to take or give, Because we scowl and pass each other by, We do not live; we do not dare to live. " # Adolescence # Courage # Life and Living

" If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day; But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange! May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange. " # Expectation # Marriage # Alcohol and Alcoholism

" I would think Until I found Something I can never find; – Something Lying On the ground, In the bottom Of my mind. " # Lies and Lying # Love # Truth

" The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life. " # Poetry and Poets # Duty # Death and Dying

" Speech and prose are not the same thing. They have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word-perfect. Prose cannot gesticulate. Speech can sometimes do nothing else. " # Speakers and Speaking # Poetry and Poets # Writers and Writing