James Stephens (author)

"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."