Dubliners

by James Joyce

“Ah, there’s no friends like the old friends,” she said, “when all is said and done, no friends that a body can trust.”

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

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.

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.

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

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

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

Great minds are very near to madness,”

Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.

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.