John Boyle O'Reilly Quotes

“You gave me the key of your heart, my love;
Then why did you make me knock?
Oh that was yesterday, saints above!
And last night—I changed the lock!”

“How shall I a habit break?
As you did that habit make.
As you gathered, you must lose;
As you yielded, now refuse.
Thread by thread the strands we twist
Till they bind us, neck and wrist.
Thread by thread the patient hand
Must untwine, ere free we stand.
As we builded, stone by stoene,
We must toil, unhelped, alone,
Till the wall is overthrown.”

“The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.”

“For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.”

“The world is large when weary leagues two loving hearts divide
But the world is small when your enemy is loose on the other side.”

“I'd rather live in Bohemia than in any other land.”

“Doubt is brother-devil to Despair.”

“Be silent and safe—silence never betrays you.”

“The organized charity, scrimped and iced, In the name of a cautious, statistical Christ.”

“Though it lash the shallows that line the beach,
Afar from the great sea-deeps,
There is never a storm whose might can reach
Where the vast leviathan sleeps.
Like a mighty thought in a mighty mind
In the clear cold depths he swims;
Whilst above him the pettiest form of his kind
With a dash o'er the surface skims.”