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.
Most quoted on saint patrick's day:
I always thought there was very little wit wanted to make a fortune in the City.
If we live by subhuman means we might as well never have had the good fortune to be born human.
Good fortune and a good disposition are rarely given to the same man.
Life often seems like a long shipwreck, of which the débris are friendship, fame, and love.
Friendship is the balm and cordial of life, and without it, ’tis a heavy load not worth sustaining.
Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.
We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.
It is a great good fortune, as Stendhal said, for one “to have his passion as a profession.”
Jade and men are both shaped by harsh tools; be not unaware of sudden changes of fortune.
Verily, the great man finds gold and rubies more easily come by than true friendship.
If somebody could write a book for people who never read they would make a fortune.
Nothing is more binding than the friendship of companions-in-arms.
Enjoy the present smiling hour,
And put it out of Fortune's power.
The opportunities of fortune wait not for our dilatoriness and reluctance.