Lady Gregory > Quotes

“If the past year were offered me again,
And choice of good and ill before me set
Would I accept the pleasure with the pain
Or dare to wish that we had never met?”
― Augusta Gregory

“She is a girl and would not be afraid to walk the whole world with herself.”
― Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland

“And my desire,' he said, 'is a desire that is as long as a year; but it is love given to an echo, the spending of grief on a wave, a lonely fight with a shadow, that is what my love and my desire have been to me.”
― Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland

“What is whiter than snow?' he said. 'The truth,' said Grania.

'What is the best colour?' said Finn. 'The colour of childhood,' said she.

'What is hotter than fire?' 'The face of a hospitable man when he sees a stranger coming in, and the house empty.'

'What has a taste more bitter than poison?' 'The reproach of an enemy.'

'What is best for a champion?' 'His doings to be high, and his pride to be low.'

'What is the best of jewels?' 'A knife.'

'What is sharper than a sword?' 'The wit of a woman between two men.'

'What is quicker than the wind?' said Finn then. 'A woman’s mind,' said Grania. And indeed she was telling no lie when she said that.”
― Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland

“Then the creatures of the high air answered to the battle, foretelling the destruction that would be done that day; and the sea chattered of the losses, and the waves gave heavy shouts keening them, and the water-beasts roared to one another, and the rough hills creaked with the danger of the battle, and the woods trembled mourning the heroes, and the grey stones cried out at their deeds, and the wind sobbed telling them, and the earth shook, foretelling the slaughter; and the cries of the grey armies put a cloak over the sun, and the clouds were dark; and the hounds and the whelps and the crows, and the witches of the valley, and the powers of the air, and the wolves of the forests, howled from every quarter and on every side of the armies, urging them against one another.”
― Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland

“And while they were in the same place, there came a great mist about them and a darkness, so that they could not know what way they were going, and they heard the noise of a rider coming towards them. 'It would be a great grief to us,' said Conn, 'to be brought away into a strange country.”
― Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland

“He sat beside me pleasantly and played his sweet music to me, and in the end he foretold things that put drunkenness on my wits.”
― Augusta Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and the Fianna of Ireland

“Then Baothan went away into the wood to hide himself and to avoid his tasks, and while he was there he saw a man alone and he building a house; and according as he came to the end of weaving one rod into the wall he would set the head of another to it, and so he worked on from rod to rod setting one only at a time. And that seemed very tedious to the young lad till he saw the wall rising as he watched; and he said to himself then "If I had worked at my learning as this man works at his building it is likely I might be a scholar now.”
― Lady Augusta Gregory, A Book of Saints and Wonders

“Baothan that was afterwards a saint of the Gael was of the kindred of Columcille, and it was Columcille sent him when he was a little lad to be taught by Saint Colman Ela.”
― Lady Augusta Gregory, A Book of Saints and Wonders

“If the past year were offered me again,
And choice of good and ill before me set
Would I accept the pleasure with the pain
Or dare to wish that we had never met?”
― Augusta Lady Gregory

“The Celtic Twilight" was the first book of Mr. Yeats's that I read,”
― Lady Augusta Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland