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Saint Patrick's Day Quotes

No Irish collection sits under this page. It comes from two others, luck and friendship, which is about as close as a mechanical match can get to a day of toasts. The luck page leans on Seneca, Livy and Shakespeare, and on Horace’s complaint about Fortune, so expect fortune in the Roman sense rather than the four-leaf kind.

Two of its entries, from Torquato Tasso, are flagged misattributed. If you want an Irish writer, use the search box. Wilde and Shaw are both on the site.

Random quote on Saint Patrick's Day

Most quoted on saint patrick's day:

We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.

William Shakespeare

The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumps upon your back
How he esteems your merit,
Is such a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.

William Cowper

I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.

Ayn Rand Anthem (1937)

I merely point out to you that, as a matter of fact, certain persons do exist with an enormous capacity for friendship and for taking delight in other people's lives; and that such person know more of truth than if their hearts were not so big.

William James Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (1911)

Chance will not do the work—Chance sends the breeze;
But if the pilot slumber at the helm,
The very wind that wafts us towards the port
May dash us on the shelves.—The steersman's part is vigilance,
Blow it or rough or smooth.

Walter Scott

Yet its essence was the certitude that his life was not totally at the mercy of chance. Somehow, it was more important than that. This sense of power inside his head — which he could intensify by pulling a face and wrinkling up the muscles of his forehead — aroused a glow of optimism, an expectation of exciting events. He knew that for him, fate held something special in store.

Colin Wilson Spider World: The Desert (1987)

So is Hope
Changed for Despair—one laid upon the shelf,
We take the other. Under heaven's high cope
Fortune is god—all you endure and do
Depends on circumstance as much as you.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I have friends in Spirit Land,—
Not shadows in a shadowy band,
Not others but themselves are they,
And still I think of them the same
As when the Master's summons came.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Know thus far forth:
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune —
Now my dear lady — hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop.

William Shakespeare

So, if I live or die to serve my friend,
'Tis for my love —' tis for my friend alone,
And not for any rate that friendship bears
In heaven or on earth.

George Eliot

When I choose my friend, I will not stay till I have received a kindness; but I will choose such a one that can do me many if I need them; but I mean such kindnesses which make me wiser, and which make me better.

Jeremy Taylor

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.

Simone de Beauvoir The Coming of Age (1970)

Hollanders are not a nation to rob another of its property, but desire to live in friendship with all people, and trade with them.

Jan van Riebeeck

When bad fortune occurs, the unresourceful, unimaginative man looks about him to attach the blame to someone else; the resolute accepts misfortune and endeavors to survive, mature, and improve because of it.

Anne McCaffrey Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983)

The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.

P. T. Barnum Art of Money Getting (1880)

There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care.

Robin Sloan Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012)

I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.

Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield : A Biography (1953)

Never apologize for showing feeling, my friend. Remember that when you do so, you apologize for truth.

Benjamin Disraeli Contarini Fleming (1832)

Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

Elbert Hubbard The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

Abigail Adams

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