Quotes from book

Dubliners

“There's no friends like the old friends.”

“It was cold autumn weather, but in spite of the cold they wandered up and down the roads of the Park for nearly three hours. They agreed to break off their intercourse; every bond, he said, is a bond to sorrow.”

“I could call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.”

“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.”

“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”

“She respected her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed: and though she knew the small number of his talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male.”

“No one would think he'd make such a beautiful corpse.”

“The light music of whisky falling into glasses made an agreeable interlude.”

“Too excited to be genuinely happy”

“He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.”

“I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real
adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

“Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.”

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

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

“Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well.”

“Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.”

“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.”

“She dealt with moral problems the way a cleaver deals with meat: and in this case she had made up her mind.”

“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.”