James Stephens Quotes

• Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.
• Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.
• Because our lives are cowardly and sly, Because we do not dare to take or give, Because we scowl and pass each other by, We do not live; we do not dare to live.
• If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day; But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange! May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.
• I would think Until I found Something I can never find; - Something Lying On the ground, In the bottom Of my mind.
• The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life.
• Speech and prose are not the same thing. They have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word-perfect. Prose cannot gesticulate. Speech can sometimes do nothing else.

james stephens