The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist

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.

Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not.

The real pleasure of one's life is the devotion to a great objective of one's consideration.

Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on.

The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.

If you leave your art, the world will beat you back to it. The world has not an ambition worth sharing, or a prize worth handling.