James Joyce: Likeness

James Joyce was Irish novelist and poet. Explore interesting quotes on likeness.
James Joyce: 382   quotes 33   likes

“And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will yes.”

James Joyce
Heart , Madness

“His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Life , Past , Heart , Dance

“He was not sure what idea he wished to express but the thought that a poetic moment had touched upon him took life within him like an infant hope. He stepped onward bravely.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

"A Little Cloud"
Dubliners (1914)

Life , Hope , Idea

“He wanted to cry quietly but not for himself: for the words, so beautiful and sad, like music.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Sadness , Beauty , Music , Cry

“But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

"Araby"
Dubliners (1914)

“Why is it that words like these seem dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?”

James Joyce book The Dead

Source: The Dead

“and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

“Moments of their secret life together burst like stars upon his memory.”

James Joyce book The Dead

Source: The Dead

Life , Secret , Star , Memory

“I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

“All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.”

James Joyce

Letter to Augusta Gregory (22 November 1902), from James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (1959) [Oxford University Press, 1983 edition, <small> ISBN 0-195-03381-7</small>] (p. 107)

Faith , Soul , Light , Change

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

James Joyce book The Dead

Dubliners (1914)
Variant: His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Source: "The Dead"
Context: Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Soul , Universe , Dead

“Like the tender fires of stars moments of their life together, that no one knew of or would ever know of, broke upon and illuminated his memory.”

James Joyce book The Dead

Source: The Dead

Life , Star , Memory

“Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Hope , Heart

“In one letter that he had written to her then he had said: Why is it that words like these seem to me so dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?”

James Joyce book The Dead

Source: The Dead

“I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

"Araby"
Dubliners (1914)

“You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.”

James Joyce

Exiles (1915), Act II http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/exiles2.html

Suffering , Forgetting