Malachy McCourt > Quotes

“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
― Malachy McCourt

“If you have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you're pissing on the present.”
― Malachy McCourt

“... look, lust, and leave, knowing I could never have one of them for myself.”
― Malachy McCourt, A Monk Swimming

“[...] life can turn from being cheerful, warm and cozy to negative in a sec, and all it takes is us handing the power of happiness over to another human being.”
― Malachy McCourt, A Monk Swimming

“Kenneth Tynan once said that the only people who can do Russian drama, outside of the Russians themselves, are the Irish. I presume that's because we are somewhat manic in the mood department. It's no bother to soar from the darkest depths to the mountaintops of delight, with the heart borne by all of that which is alive and singing. It's even less bother to swan-dive into the pits of despair and total hopelessness, with the realization that it's no use being Irish unless you know the world is eventually going to break your heart.”
― Malachy McCourt, A Monk Swimming

“The first item on a spiritual agenda is that I am not what I do, that I am what I am, and therefore I am a walking miracle, on a daily basis.”
― Malachy McCourt, Singing My Him Song: A Bawdy and Moving Story―From World-Class Drunk to Loving Father and Family Man

“religious people are afraid of going to hell, while spiritual people have already been there.”
― Malachy McCourt, Death Need Not Be Fatal

“There was a fellow named Adolf Hitler over in Germany who had gotten himself the position of führer on the promise that he was going to make Germany great again. Americans, including the much-honored Charles Lindbergh, the motorcar magnate Henry Ford, whose photo Hitler kept in his office, and a man named Fred Koch, who built some oil refineries for the Nazis, much admired him. And then there was a man named Thomas Watson, whose company IBM helped with the statistical problems of transporting Jews to concentration camps and killing them.”
― Malachy McCourt, Death Need Not Be Fatal

“At the end of his days, the very wealthy Scotsman Andrew Carnegie decided to sell all his assets in steel and railroads and sponsor libraries. As Carnegie liked to say, “The man who dies rich dies a disgraced death.”
― Malachy McCourt, Death Need Not Be Fatal

“I’m an atheist, thank God, with no fear of hell and no hope of heaven.”
― Malachy McCourt, Death Need Not Be Fatal

“I think my death will be sleep that knows no waking, followed by a wake that knows no sleeping. I’ll”
― Malachy McCourt, Death Need Not Be Fatal