Start with the belief that your life can indeed be changed, and that you have the power to change it.

An English army led by an Irish general: that might be a match for a French army led by an Italian general.

Nationalism must now be added to the refuse pile of superstitions. We are now citizens of the world, and the man who divides the race into elect Irishmen and reprobate foreign devils (especially Englishmen) had better live on the Blaskets where he can admire himself without disturbance.

I hope you have lost your good looks, for while they last any fool can adore you, and the adoration of fools is bad for the soul.

If any religion had a chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam.

I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a Communist.

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.