40 Quotes by John Millington Synge

A translation is no translation,’ he said, ‘unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.

Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of the artistic beauty of medieval life.

It is the timber of poetry that wears most surely, and there is no timber that has not strong roots among the clay and worms.

A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the rigging, and a small circle of foam.

The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.

In this cry of pain the inner consciousness of the people seems to lay itself bare for an instant, and to reveal the mood of beings who feel their isolation in the face of a universe that wars on them with winds and seas.

They're cheering a young lad, the champion playboy of the Western World.

Of the things which nourish the imagination, humour is one of the most needful, and it is dangerous to limit or destroy it.

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.