Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.

In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation.

Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.