"Irish humour, properly speaking, is, one may venture to say, more imaginative than any other. And it is probably less ill-natured than that of any other nation, though the Irish have a special aptness in the saying of things that wound, and the most illiterate of Irish peasants can put more scorn into a retort than the most highly educated of another race. There is sometimes a half-pathetic strain in the best Irish humorous writers, and just as in their saddest moments the people are inclined to joke, so in many writings where pathos predominates, the native humour gleams. If true Irish humour is not easily defined with precision, it is at least easily recognisable, there is so much buoyancy and movement in it, and usually so much expansion of heart."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_James_O'Donoghue
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
David James O'Donoghue
1866 – 1917
David James O'Donoghue (22 July 1866 – 27 June 1917) was an Irish biographer.
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by David James O'Donoghue →
Related Quotes
"Only those who are in the closest intimacy with sacred objects venture to treat them familiarly, and the Irish peasan…"
"I never really had any aspirations to be an actor when I was young. I wanted to play the piano in a bar, to be the ol…"
"If I do decide one day to stop acting, I just hate the idea of people going: 'Oh, did you ever do anything else besid…"
"I don't really know how to act, I kind of wanted to somehow make it real, and one of the ways I've always thought mak…"
"In the days of my early acquaintance with Henley, some fourteen or fifteen years ago, I could never look at him witho…"
"When men live in small communities, ... they cannot avoid personal participation in some public functions. So it was …"
"It is impossible to maintain that these attributes [caution and progress] have been constant in the two great English…"
"His bright spirits and kindly genial ways, the outward expression of a soul which combined with its deep sense of rel…"
"Wherever she went, Vita collected seeds and roots and s, and always travelled with a and a few potatoes into which sh…"
"The Great Parterre at , planted by , was abolished by , a priceless piece of history lost."