Every human soul has seen, perhaps before their birth, pure forms such as justice, temperance, beauty and all the great moral qualities which we hold in honour. We are moved towards what is good by the faint memory of these forms, simple and calm and blessed, which we saw once in a pure, clear light, being pure ourselves.

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.

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!

confession ran in the family.

I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

A long marriage is very unifying, even if it's not ideal, and those old structures must be respected.

Art and psychoanalysis give shape and meaning to life and that is why we adore them, but life as it is lived has no shape and meaning.