George William Russell Quotations

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.

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

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.

The victors in great wars have always been spiritually defeated by the conquered.

The relation of landlord and tenant is not an ideal one, but 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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