25 Powerful and Inspiring Quotes by James Joyce

Enjoy these powerful and motivating quotes by Irish author, James Joyce.

“Shut your eyes and see.”

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.”

“Your battles inspired me – not the obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your forehead.”

“Life is too short to read a bad book.”

“You can still die while the sun is shining.”

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.”

“The object of the artists is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question.”

“To learn one must be humble. But life is the great teacher.”

“Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.”

“But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

“I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

“Touch me. Soft eyes, Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O, touch me soon, now. What is that word known to all men? I am quiet here alone. Sad too. Touch, touch me.”

“Absence, the highest form of presence.”

“Every bond is a bond to sorrow.”

“I’d love to have the whole place swimming in roses.”

“Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well.”

“Like the tender fire of stars, moments of their life together, that no one knew of or would ever know of, broke upon and illuminated his memory.”

“Read your own obituary notice; they say you live longer. Gives you second wind. New lease on life.”

“I have left my book, I have left my room, For I heard you singing Through the gloom.”

“There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.”

“As I am. As I am. All or not at all.”

“Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs is his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind.”

“There’s no friends like the old friends.”

“The light music of whiskey falling into glasses made an agreeable interlude.”

“While you have a thing it can be taken from you… but when you give it, you haven’t given it, no robber can take it from you. It is yours then forever when you have given it. It will be yours always. That is to give.”

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