Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality?

The wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

Everybody sets out to do something, and everybody does something, but no one does what he sets out to do.

Remorse: beholding heaven and feeling hell.

Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn't the dream destroy reality?

Taking something from one man and making it worse is plagiarism.

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

The difficulty in life is the choice.

Art must be parochial in the beginning to be cosmopolitan in the end.

'The Dublin Magazine' has been edited with good taste, and it is very agreeable reading, but to speak quite candidly, I do not believe in the future of any literary journal any more than I believe in the future of the Trinity.

A man of letters never objects to a slum. He sharpens his pen there.

An idea has been running in my head that books lose and gain qualities in the course of time, and I have worried over it a good deal, for what seemed to be a paradox, I felt to be a truth.

An idea is so impersonal; it is yours today and the whole world's tomorrow.

Dublin dwindles so beautifully; there is no harsh separation between it and the country. It fades away, whereas London seems to devour the country; an army of buildings come and take away a beautiful park, and you never seem to get quite out of sight of a row of houses.

England produced Shakespeare, and the British Empire the six-shilling novel.

Every race gets the religion it deserves, and only as policemen, pugilists, and priests have they succeeded, here and there a successful lawyer, but nothing more serious.

I do not believe in a universal religion any more than I believe in a universal language. My feeling is that people have to make their own religion as they have to make their arts and their parishes, and that they must find their own salvation; the salvation mongers are of not much avail.

I have written 30,000 words in a month - think of it - 30,000! I hope I am putting the right number of naughts: an average of a thousand words a day! For thirty days!

Isn't it strange that religious prejudices - beliefs none possess, not even the saints, so they have lamented - divide brothers and sons from their fathers. You see, I except mothers and sisters; the female is not a religious animal. If she were, the world would have ceased long ago.

Men never get free from morality, only women.

Some men spend their lives watching bees and ants, noting down the habits of these insects; my pleasure is to watch the human mind, noting how unselfish instincts rise to the surface and sink back again, making way for selfish instincts, each equally necessary, for the world would perish were it to become entirely selfish or entirely unselfish.

The right I claim is that of every human being to speak what he believes to be the truth to whomever he may meet on his way.

The right of property holds good in all society; but in the West, ethics invade the personal life in a manner unknown to the East, so much so that the Oriental stands agape at our folly, knowing well that every man brings different instincts and ideas into the world with him.

The truth is that I am in love with Dublin. I think it is the most beautiful town that I have ever seen, mountains at the back and the sea in front, and long roads winding through decaying suburbs and beautiful woods.

To what better purpose can a man's energy be devoted, and his talents, than the resuscitation of his country's language?

You will find in me a middle aged man with a career behind me sufficiently brilliant to enable me to talk about many things interestingly; and I am not an unkindly soul, I believe.

You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels but I have seen thee and thou art enough.

The truth is that I am in love with Dublin. I think it is the most beautiful town that I have ever seen mountains at the back and the sea in front and long roads winding through decaying suburbs and beautiful woods.

Dublin dwindles so beautifully there is no harsh separation between it and the country. It fades away whereas London seems to devour the country an army of buildings come and take away a beautiful park and you never seem to get quite out of sight of a row of houses.

There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is. It is the American Dream.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

The best thing I can think of would be to create a union between something as beautiful and powerful and wonderful as Hollywood films and a criticism of the status quo. That's my dream, to make such a German film.

In fact I have nightmares about having children. I want to carry a baby and feel the life within me and in my dream, I do. But every time after it's born, there's this incredible fear, this pounding pulse of fear. It's a real bad nightmare.

I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.

It's not the size of the dreamer, it's the size of the dream.

Christianity is a battle not a dream.

Lately, I can't shake the feeling that I've been living a dream for the last 10 years or so; I can't account for most of my 20s, and I have to continually remind myself that certain people are dead now and many of my friends have children.

If you stop and think about our history, one of the reasons we had an American century and there is an American dream was because at key points in our history we made very bold decisions about making sure that there was very broad, universal access to quality education.

My secret dream is to write an epic poem. That's probably the most pretentious thing I've said.

I have played for 15 years and it has been a dream.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

It's been President Clinton's dream that we'll have finally a fully integrated Europe.

My dream is to save women from nature.

A man's moral conscience is the curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them the right to dream.

For the next century, the Republicans have agreed that we will promote the dignity and future of every individual by building a free society under a limited, accountable government that protects liberty, security and prosperity for a brighter American dream.

A novel usually takes me two years. A year to research and plan and dream. Then a year to write.

I had to do something special coming in. I didn't do it, so I had to do it in the playoff. Winning the Mercedes is awesome. Winning three times is a dream come true.

Love in marriage should be the accomplishment of a beautiful dream, and not, as it too often is, the end.

And you must dare to do as many things as you dream of.