Quotes By James Joyce

There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.

Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.

A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.

I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

A nation is the same people living in the same place.

Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk.

Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.

Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.

I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.

Ireland sober is Ireland stiff.

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality.

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

My words in her mind: cold polished stones sinking through a quagmire.

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not.

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

A corpse is meat gone bad. Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk.

Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.

When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.

He found in the world without as actual what was in his world within as possible.

No pen, no ink, no table, no room, no time, no quiet, no inclination.

A man's errors are his portals of discovery.

Men are governed by lines of intellect - women: by curves of emotion.

Satan, really, is the romantic youth of Jesus re-appearing for a moment.

I fear those big words which make us so unhappy.

If Ireland is to become a new Ireland she must first become European.

Nations have their ego, just like individuals.