I have not wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns, as Johnson did, when he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit

My reputation grows with every failure.

There are no perfectly honorable men; but every true man has one main point of honor and a few minor ones.

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.

Style is effectiveness of assertion.

Your heart and your mouth wil be in two separate parts of your body if you again forget in whose presence you stand.

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.