The Complete Novels of James Joyce Quotes

“The air was soft and grey and mild and evening was coming. There was the smell of evening in the air”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“And once a lot of generals had asked Napoleon what was the happiest day of his life. They thought he would say the day he won some great battle or the day he was made an emperor. But he said: — Gentlemen”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“the warm heavy smell of turkey and ham and celery rose from the plates and dishes and the great fire was banked high and red in the grate and the green ivy and red holly made you feel so happy and when dinner was ended the big plum pudding would be carried in”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“There was every kind of news in the paper: accidents”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“Canker was a disease of plants and cancer one of animals:”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“Going home for the holidays! That would be lovely: the fellows had told him. Getting up on the cars in the early wintry morning outside the door of the castle. The cars were rolling on the gravel. Cheers for the rector! Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! The cars drove past the chapel and all caps were raised. They drove merrily along the country roads. The drivers pointed with their whips to Bodenstown. The fellows cheered. They passed the farmhouse of the Jolly Farmer. Cheer after cheer after cheer. Through Clane they drove”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“Was it true about the black dog that walked there at night with eyes as big as carriage-lamps? They said it was the ghost of a murderer.”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“His fingers trembled as he undressed himself in the dormitory. He told his fingers to hurry up. He had to undress and then kneel and say his own prayers and be in bed before the gas was lowered so that he might not go to hell when he died. He rolled his stockings off and put on his nightshirt quickly and knelt trembling at his bedside and repeated his prayers quickly”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“He felt small and weak. When would he be like the fellows in poetry and rhetoric? They had big voices and big boots and they studied trigonometry. That was very far away. First came the vacation and then the next term and then vacation again and then again another term and then again the vacation. It was like a train going in and out of tunnels and that was like the noise of the boys eating in the refectory when you opened and closed the flaps of the ears.”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“And there were nice sentences in Doctor Cornwell’s Spelling Book. They were like poetry but they were only sentences to learn the spelling from. Wolsey died in Leicester Abbey Where the abbots buried him. Canker is a disease of plants”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“Then Jack Lawton’s yellow boots dodged out the ball and all the other boots and legs ran after. He ran after them a little way and then stopped. It was useless to run on. Soon”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels

“Nice mother! The first day in the hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given him two five-shilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told him if he wanted anything to write home to him and”
― James Joyce, James Joyce: The Complete Novels