A man's own self is the last person to believe in him, and is harder to cheat than the rest of the world.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

We have in England a curious belief in first-rate people, meaning all the people we do not know; and this consoles us for the undeniable second-rateness of the people we do know.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

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.

Consistency is the enemy of enterprise, just as symmetry is the enemy of art.

It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as he can.