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1 " Let the past be content with itself, for man needs forgetfulness as well as memory "
― James Stephens , Traditional Irish Fairy Tales
2 " Tell me your past, my beloved, for a man is his past, and is to be known by it. "
3 " Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. "
― James Stephens
4 " Curiosity will conquer fear more than bravery will. "
5 " Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself. "
6 " What the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow "
― James Stephens , The Crock of Gold
7 " It is by love alone that we understand anything "
8 " It has occurred to me, brother, that wisdom may not be the end to everything. Goodness and kindness are, perhaps, beyond wisdom. Is it not possible that the ultimate end is music and gaiety and a dance of joy? Wisdom is the oldest of all things. Wisdom is all head and no heart.Behold, brother, you are being crushed under the weight of your head. You are dying of old age while you are yet a child. "
9 " Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera. "
10 " We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered we get wise, for a well-packed question carries its answer on its back as a snail carries its shell. "
11 " A poem is a revelation, and it is by the brink of running water that poetry is revealed to the mind. "
12 " In truth we do not go to Faery, we become Fairy, and in the beating of a pulse we may live for a year or a thousand years. "
13 " Why do you live on the bank of a river?' was one of these questions.'Because a poem in a revelation, and it is by the brink of running water that poetry is revealed to the mind. "
14 " There are more worlds than one, and in many ways they are unlike each other. But joy and sorrow, or, in other words, good and evil,are not absent in their degree from any of the worlds, for wherever there is life there is action, and action is but the expression of one or other of these qualities. "
15 " After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and serene goddess knew or hoped for—it is a disease, it is a moral syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been purged. "
― James Stephens , The Insurrection in Dublin
16 " Even the wind had ceased, and there seemed to be nothing in the world but the darkness and himself. In that gigantic blackness, in that unseen quietude and vacancy, the mind could cease to be personal to itself. It could be overwhelmed and merged in space, so that consciousness would be transferred or dissipated, and one might sleep standing; for the mind fears loneliness more than all else, and will escape to the moon rather than be driven inwards on its own being. "
17 " Originalitatea nu constă în a spune ce nu a mai spus nimeni, ci în a spune exact ceea ce gândești tu însuți. "
18 " But outside of the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North it is fundamentally more political than religious. "
19 " Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it, said the Philosopher. "
20 " There is a difference between this world and the world of Faery, but it is not immediately perceptible. Everything that is here is there, but the things that are there are better than those that are here. All things that are bright are there brighter. There is more gold in the sun and more silver in the moon of that land. There is more scent in the flowers, more savour in the fruit. There is more comeliness in the men and more tenderness in the women. Everything in Faery is better by this one wonderful degree, and it is by this betterness you will know that you are there if you should ever happen to get there. "
