38 Quotes by Thomas Cahill

In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded his world to theirs, his faith to their life…Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination – making it more humane and more noble while keeping it Irish.

Rome fell because of inner weakness, either social or spiritual; or Rome fell because of outer pressure – the barbarian hordes. What we can say with confidence is that Rome fell gradually and that Romans for many decades scarcely noticed what was happening.

The word grammar – the first step in the course of classical study that molded all educated men from Plato to Augustine – will be mispronounced by one barbarian tribe as “glamour.” In other words, whoever has grammar – whoever can read – possesses magic inexplicable.

The Irish believed that gods, druids, poets, and others in touch with the magical world could be literal shape-shifters.

Jesus was no ivory-tower philosopher but a down-to-earth man who understood that much of the good of human life is to be found in taste, touch, smell, and the small attentions of one human being for another.

This was why sudden death was so feared: it did not give you time to put your spiritual house in order. You might have meant to repent but hadn’t quite got round to it. Too bad. Down you go. All the way.

The consulships were not the only ornamental offices in Roman society: the Eternal City was filled with the comings and goings of impotent men – senators, magistrates, bustling administrators of all kinds – performing meaningless duties.

Call them the people of the Dark Ages if you will, but do not underestimate the desire of these early medieval men and women for the rule of law.

Since time is no longer cyclical but one-way and irreversible, personal history is now possible and an individual life can have value.