Quotes from The Princes of Ireland

“The English Church, it was claimed, was Catholicism purified and reformed. And what was the nature of this reform? The truth was that nobody, least of all Henry himself, had much idea.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“That was the trouble with being too highly born, Finbarr considered. The gods paid too much attention to you. It was ever thus in the Celtic world. Ravens would fly over the house to announce the death of a clan chief, swans would desert the lake. A king’s bad judgement could affect the weather. And if you were a prince, the druids made prophesies about you from before the day you were born; and after that, there was no escape.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“The great festival of Lughnasa was held at Carmun once every three years. The site of Carmun was eerie. In a land of wild forest and bog, it was an open grassy space that stretched, green and empty, halfway to the horizon. Lying some distance west of the point where, if you were following it upstream, the Liffey’s course began to retreat eastwards on the way to its source in the Wicklow Mountains, the place was absolutely flat, except for some mounds in which ancestral chiefs were buried. The festival lasted a week. There were areas reserved for food and livestock markets, and another where fine clothes were sold; but the most important quarter was where a large racetrack was laid out on the bare turf.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“In recent decades, Ireland in general and Dublin in particular, have been very fortunate in the quality of the historical attention they have received. During the extensive research required to write this book, I have been privileged to work with some of Ireland’s most distinguished scholars, who have generously shared their knowledge with me and corrected my texts. Their kind contributions are mentioned in the Acknowledgements. Thanks to the scholarly work of the last quarter century, there has been a reevaluation of certain aspects of Ireland’s history; and as a result, the story that follows may contain a number of surprises for many readers. I have provided a few additional notes in the Afterword at the end of this volume for those curious to know more.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“In less than a month it would be the magical feast of Samhain. Some years this took place at the great ceremonial centre of Tara; other years it was held at other places. At Samhain the excess livestock would be slaughtered, the rest put out on the wasteland and later brought into pens, while the High King and his followers set off on their winter rounds. Until then, however, it was a slow and peaceful time. The harvest was in, the weather still warm. It should, for the High King, have been a time of contentment.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“We, the heirs of Saint Patrick, we who kept alive the Christian faith and the writings of ancient Rome when most of the world had sunk under the barbarians, we who gave the Saxons their education are to be taught a lesson in Christianity by the English?”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“This Plantagenet king comes from the devil.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

“We have all been robbed of the land we have loved for a thousand years. Do you not see that, Welshman? Can you not imagine his rage? We were not even conquered. We were deceived.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, quote from The Princes of Ireland

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“إن شك المرء ، سخريته ، الإحساس السليم السياسي الثقافي ، الذي يحفظه بعيدا عن التحركات الجماعية ، كان درعا واقيا .”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Dying Animal

“Wow,” Finn said, looking her up and down. “Wander into a bad part of town?”
Megan looked down at the scrape on her left knee and the nasty bruise forming on her shin.
“No. It was…practice,” Megan said. “I’m sorry, should I go?”
“No! No,” Finn said, pulling a stool out from the wall. “Come in. Take a load off. You look like you could use it.”
Megan smiled and inched into the shed, afraid to touch anything with any part of her body. She slipped sideways past his easel and sat down on the stool, which shifted under her weight. Megan threw her arms out for balance and Finn caught her hand.
“Sorry. It’s kind of old,” he said.
“No problem,” Megan replied. She looked at his hand clamped around hers. He released her, clearing his throat and slapping his palm against his jeans.”
― quote from Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

“Everything bad was worse at the holidays, he knew that from the years of his dad’s absence. All around you were people in an extra-happy mood, and it just made your own hurt bigger.”
― Suzanne Collins, quote from Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

“I emit, I hiss a rather tired and gentle word like "shit", then tear this page from the machine. it's your.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Tales of Ordinary Madness

“Weakness or strength: there you are, strength. You do not know where you are going, nor why you are going; enter anywhere, reply to anything. They will no more kill you than if you were a corpse.” In the morning I had a look so lost, a face so dead, that perhaps those whom I met did not see me.

In cities, suddenly, the mud seemed red and black like a mirror when the lamp moves about in the adjoining room, like a treasure in the forest! Good luck, I cried, and I saw a sea of flames and smoke in the sky; to the right, to the left all the riches of the world flaming like a billion thunder-bolts.”
― Arthur Rimbaud, quote from A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

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