The chief requirement of the good life, is to live without any image of oneself.

That's how vile i am! I live Ireland, I breathe Ireland, and Christ how I loathe it, I wish I were a bloody Scot, that's how bloody awful it is being Irish!

We re all muddlers. The thing is to see is when one's got to stop muddling.

Love is the source of our greatest errors; but when it is even partially refined it is the energy and the passion of the soul in its search for Good, the force that joins us to Good and joins us to the world through Good. Its existence is the unmistakable sign that we are spiritual creatures, attracted by excellence and made for the Good. It is a reflection of the warmth and light of the sun.

You cannot have both truth and what you call civilisation.

The sending of a letter constitutes a magical grasp upon the future.

There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present.