Morgan Llywelyn > Quotes

“I'm Irish!...When I feel well I feel better than anyone, when I am in pain I yell at the top of my lungs, and when I am dead I shall be deader than anybody.”
― Morgan Llywelyn

“She enjoys rain for its wetness, winter for its cold, summer for its heat. She loves rainbows as much for fading as for their brilliance. It is easy for her, she opens her heart and accepts everything.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

“He took her into his arms again, using all his strength to be gentle, and let his lips touch hers so lightly he could hardly feel it.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Lion Of Ireland

“The harmony that holds the stars on their courses and the flesh on our bones resonates through all creation. Every sound contains its echo. Before there was humankind, or even forest, there was sound. Sound spread from the source in great circles like those formed when a stone is dropped in a pool.
We follow waves of sound from life to life. A dying man’s ears will hear long after his eyes are blind. He hears the sound that leads him to his next life as the Source of All being plucks the harp of creation.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Druids

“Bodies wear out to remind us they are temporary, and force us to spend more thought on our spirits”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

“We’re born alone and we die alone, I accept that. But why, God, do we have to be alone in the middle?”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War

“There is a cruelty that lurks in some men’s souls which is only released when they have other men in their power.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War

“There is no disgrace in peace. There can never be dishonor in peace.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War

“If you would have peace, genuine peace, you must accept all the aspects of your personality and learn to be comfortable with them.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Lion of Ireland

“We never fully appreciate today until tomorrow.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Greener Shore

“Hating is easy. It's loving that's hard”
― Morgan Llywelyn

“Let me tell you something about women, Tigernan,” Ruari offered, stretching his legs and holding up his empty ale bowl to attract the innkeeper’s attention. “I’ve given a bit of thought to them, having lived more years than you. Women are something a man requires, as necessary as air to breathe and ale to drink. I cannot boast of understanding them, mind you, but I suspect nature designed them for a specific purpose, and it would be a mistake to try to change them. “Women render men an invaluable service that may not at first be apparent. They are born to be responsible, to caretake. It is in them to probe their men as they would examine an old cloak, looking for holes that could let the wind through. Women understand survival better than we do, I think. They will nag and probe and provoke until they find a lowered defense, even the smallest hole, then they poke their fingers through and shout, ‘Aha!’ “In this way they force their men to keep their cloaks mended and their weapons in repair, and ultimately this helps them survive. With a woman treading on his heels a man must stay alert and in the proper frame of mind to go out and slay dragons. Never provoke a quarrel with a man who has just had his flaws pointed out to him by some woman.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“As the sun is to the earth, so Honour is to a man. without it, he will not flourish. All else may fail you, but honour is the treasure no one can take from you, the shield no one can penetrate unless you let them. Honour is beautiful and clean. Honour is sacred.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Red Branch

“Questions stripped away the platitudes and undermined the verities that provided a sheltered, nursery existence for people who did not want to think. Questions were the obligation of the intellect.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion

“Even her radiant beauty seemed to dim as he thought of the way she had fooled him.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“In the long run, the fall of one civilization is very much like the fall of another. Only the land remains.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, After Rome: A Novel of Celtic Britain

“Feet, she thought. Sea legs. When you pass the last spit of land and commit to the ocean, you are taking a step into the infinite and might set your foot down anywhere.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“The achievements and discoveries of a great but dying society can bring light to a young and growing one.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Only the Stones Survive

“At one time the Irish had been forbidden by English law to educate their children, to own a horse worth more than five pounds, to play the Irish pipes, to wear the color green… the list went on and on. Most of the oppressive statutes were no longer enforced, but the shamed submission they had engendered remained.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion

“Men who have died in battle are rarely good to look upon. No matter how splendid their appearance at the apex of heroism, when the soul has fled it takes all grace and beauty with it. Bowels empty, mouths gape, bellies swell, dead eyes gleam fish-belly white. Nothing visible remains of glory. In the tents of death all men belong to the same tribe.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1014: Brian Boru the Battle for Ireland

“Although Erc was bitterly disappointed, there was another route to prestige. He possessed gifts of the mind sufficient to gain admittance to the order of Druids, the intellectual class of Celtic society. Members of the order were not practitioners of a specific religion, nor were they priests in the Christian sense of the word. The Greeks were more nearly correct by describing Druids as poet-philosophers.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Brendan

“Everything hurts, Fergal. All the time. Start with that and life won't be able to disappoint you.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“The Romans did not like kings. We needed them, however. Over many generations we had evolved the pattern of living that best suited Celtic natures. Kings led noble warriors in battle that defined tribal territory and gave men a shape for their pride. Less aggressive common people farmed the land and did the labor of the tribe. Druids were responsible for the intangible essentials upon which all else depended. Man and Earth and Otherworld were thus held in balance----until the coming of Caesar, who wanted to destroy our warriors and our druids so he could make the rest of us his slaves.”
― Morgan Llywelyn

“No'm he aint ill. Not unless laziness is a sickness. If it is, I'd say he's close to dying tomorrow.”
― Morgan Llywelyn

“We have freedom of the press; I think it’s guaranteed in the Constitution or something.”   The”
― Morgan Llywelyn, 1999: A Novel of the Celtic Tiger and the Search for Peace

“I walk on the surface of a shifting bog. I have to grab for whatever I can find that is solid.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Io non ci ho mai tenuto a diventare un capo" rispose Grania. "Sono sempre andata dove volevo andare, e quando mi guardavo indietro vedevo che gli altri mi stavano seguendo.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“Grace O'Malley is a crafty devil.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas

“But my mind keeps on thinking,” Connla offered hopefully. “As long as I am thinking, I must be alive.”  The ant pondered this. “There are many who never think, yet are considered to be alive,” it said.  “Then what is ‘being alive’?”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest

“The old chieftain’s eyes were bleak. “Is that all you have left to offer me from your bag of tricks, druid? Hope?”  “Hope is priceless,” Coran assured him.  “Hope is what’s left at the bottom of the bag,” Hundred Battles said. “Like lint.”
― Morgan Llywelyn, The Isles of the Blest