George William Russell

“I lay this down as a fundamental proposition, which I do not think will be denied, that whoever controls the taxation and trade policy of a country controls its destiny and the entire character of its civilization.”

“After the spiritual powers, there is no thing in the world more unconquerable than the spirit of nationality. The spirit of nationality in Ireland will persist even though the mightiest of material powers be its neighbor.”

“The world can only be free when men are content in themselves and each draws from his own fountain.”

“Love and hate have a magical transforming power. They are the great soul changers. We grow through their exercise into the likeness of what we contemplate.”

“We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate.”

“By intensity of hatred, nations create in themselves the character that they imagine in their enemies. Hence it comes that all passionate conflicts result in an interchange of characteristics. We might say with truth, those who hate open a door by which their enemies enter and make their own the secret places of the heart.”

“We have the universe to roam in in imagination. It is our virtue to be infinitely varied. The worst tyranny is uniformity.”

“We dwell in the house of the body, but its perfection and intricate life are the work of a wisdom which never relaxes dominion over a single cell.”

“When steam first began to pump and wheels go round at so many revolutions per minute, what are called business habits were intended to make the life of man run in harmony with the steam engine, and his movement rival the train in punctuality.”

“Forgive me, Spirit of my spirit, for this, that I have found it easier to read the mystery told in tears and understood Thee better in sorrow than in joy.”

“We realise that natural aptitudes are not interchangeable, and each person must, of biological or spiritual necessity, practise the art for which he is fitted.”

“We have control over the work of our hands, but little over the working of the soul. But yet we must yield to it, for without it we have nothing.”

“Ah, to think how thin the veil that lies Between the pain of hell and Paradise.”

“Any relations in a social order will endure, if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality.”

“Our hearts were drunk with a beauty Our eyes could never see.”

“You can't evoke great spirits and eat plums at the same time.”

“The wind from the Kingdom of Heaven has blown all over the world, and shall blow for centuries yet.”

“Twilight, a timid, fawn, went glimmering by, and Night, the dark-blue hunter, followed fast.”

“Nothing exasperates the spirit in man more than power which seems unconquerable and which makes impotent all protest.”

“It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.”