Quotes from James Stephens


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To work is nothing; the king on his throne, the priest kneeling before the Holy Altar, all people in all places had to work, but no person at all need be a servant.


Women and birds are able to see without turning their heads, and that is indeed a necessary provision for they are both surrounded by enemies.


You must be fit to give before you can be fit to receive.


In that wide struggle which we call Progress, evil is always the aggressor and the vanquished, and it is right that this should be so, for without its onslaughts and depredations humanity might fall to a fat slumber upon its cornsacks and die snoring.


Man works outwardly and inwardly - after rest, he has energy; after energy, he needs repose; so, when we have given instruction for a time, we need instruction and must receive it, or the spirit faints and wisdom herself grows bitter.


The inexorable compulsion of all things is towards health or destruction, life or death, and we hasten our joys or our woes to the logical extreme. It is urgent, therefore, that we be joyous if we wish to live.


Men come of age at sixty, women at fifteen.


To understand the theory which underlies all things is not sufficient. Theory is but the preparation for practice.


Women are stronger than men - they do not die of wisdom.


What the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.


By having much, you are fitted to have more.


God did not need any assistance, but man did; bitterly he wanted it, and the giving of such assistance was the proper business of a woman.


Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.


The mysteries of death and birth occupy women far more than is the case with men, to whom political and mercantile speculations are more congenial.


We are washed both on coming into the world and on going out of it, and we take no pleasure from the first washing nor any profit from the last.


When a woman speaks to a man about the love she feels for another man, she is not liked.


A man and a woman may become quite intimate in a quarter of an hour. Almost certainly will they endeavour to explain themselves to each other before many minutes have elapsed; but a man and a man will not do this, and even less so will a woman and a woman, for these are parallel lines which will never meet.


Any fool can wash himself, but every wise man knows that it is an unnecessary labour, for nature will quickly reduce him to a natural and healthy dirtiness again.


Let the past be content with itself, for man needs forgetfulness as well as memory.


A woman is a branchy tree and man a singing wind; and from her branches carelessly he takes what he can find.