Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny; they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

Science is always simple and always profound. It is only the half-truths that are dangerous.

All problems are finally scientific problems.

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.

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.

You're only a beginner; and what you think is love, and interest, and all that, is not real love at all: three quarters of it is only unsatisfied curiosity.