An exaltation of spirit lifted me, as it were, far above the earth and the sinful creatures crawling on its surface; and I deemed myself as an eagle among the children of men, soaring on...

Workers were required to stay six months, and even then permission to quit was not always granted. The factory held the first two months of every worker’s pay; leaving without approval meant losing that money...

Finally, we entered Chetaube County, my imaginary birthplace, where the names of the little winding roads and minuscule mountain communities never failed to inspire me: Yardscrabble, Big Log, Upper, Middle and Lower Pigsty, Chicken Scratch,...

Some readers cannot enjoy the shepherds because they know (or they say they know) that real country people are not more happy or more virtuous than any one else; but it would be tedious here...

… in these new days and in these new pages a philosophical tradition of the spontaneity of speculation kind has been rekindled on the sacred isle of Éire, regardless of its creative custodian never having...

If it ran, a Bean would shoot it. If it fell, a Bean would eat it.

I don’t believe that the Scots were always frugal, now that I have read our mean history. Once the land was without mankind and was covered with trees – most of these heaths and moors...

If it ran, a Bean would eat it. If it fell, a Bean would eat it.

I’ve seen men suffer like rural dogs and others prosper like gods.

People in the city are poor because they are oppressed, discriminated against and alienated; people in the country are poor because they’re too stupid to realize they ought to be living in the city.

Hush now, ‘tis time to sleep and dream secrets of long ago.

Rural and traditional escapism. That’s my angle. Places and events where we are free to relax and be ourselves, where nobody tells us to hurry along or conform or grow up. Somewhere we can properly...

The attendance of that brother was now become like the attendance of a demon on some devoted being that had sold himself to destruction