I have no axe to grind; only my thoughts to burnish.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends: have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.

Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them.

Man is a gregarious animal, and much more so in his mind than in his body. He may like to go alone for a walk, but he hates to stand alone in his opinions.

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer.

The luckiest generation in a country is always the one which has never went through any war in their lifetimes!

People saw the Depression as a necessary thing - a chance to squeeze out the excesses, get back to Puritan morality. That just made things worse.

I'm not a proper traveler. I don't like to be challenged or have too much of a change and prefer a week away just to relax.

Some people would be discontented in Paradise, others ... are cheerful in a graveyard.

Nobody can deny there is a rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

A real possibility now exists for a Government that is not led by either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil

We've been beaten before but never defeated. Tonight we were defeated.

Work before eating, rest after eating. Eat not ravenously, filling the mouth gulp after gulp without breathing space.

I realized that to become a saint one must suffer a great deal, always seek what is best, and forget oneself.

The poem began with the title. Then I was annoyed by one of the occasional poetry-is-dead articles. Then I refute that notion.