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Flann O'Brien

Flann O'Brien Quotes

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Famous Flann O'Brien Quotes

“After a time," said old Mathers disregarding me, "I mercifully perceived the errors of my ways and the unhappy destination I would reach unless I mended them. I retired from the world in order to try to comprehend it and to find out why it becomes more unsavoury as the years accumulate on a man's body. What do you think I discovered at the end of my meditations?" I felt pleased again. He was now questioning me. "What?" "That No is a better word than Yes," he replied.”

ThinkingMenWorldWayTryingYearsSaidEndsBodyOrderFeltMeditationErrorsUnhappyMy WayDestinationQuestioningRetired
Book:The Third Policeman (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
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“The continual cracking of your feet on the road makes a certain quantity of road come up into you. When a man dies they say he returns to clay but too much walking fills you up with clay far sooner (or buries bits of you along the road) and brings your death half-way to meet you. It is not easy to know what is the best way to move yourself from one place to another.”

KnowsMenWayMovingCertainDiesEasyBitsHalfToo MuchFeetReturnWalkingCome UpBest WayQuantityClayHalf Way
Book:The Complete Novels
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“Do you know what I am going to tell you, he said with his wry mouth, a pint of plain is your only man. Notwithstanding this eulogy, I soon found that the mass of plain porter bears an unsatisfactory relation to its toxic content and I subsequently became addicted to brown stout in bottle, a drink which still remains the one that I prefer the most despite the painful and blinding fits of vomiting which a plurality of bottles has often induced in me.”

KnowsMenSaidStillsFoundBearsFitDrinkMassMouthsRelationRemainsPainfulDespiteBrownDo You KnowBottlesToxicEulogyPintsStoutWryVomitingWithstanding
Author:Flann O'Brien
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“When a man sleeps, he is steeped and lost in a limp toneless happiness: awake he is restless, tortured by his body and the illusion of existence. Why have men spent the centuries seeking to overcome the awakened body? Put it to sleep, that is a better way. Let it serve only to turn the sleeping soul over, to change the blood-stream and thus make possible a deeper and more refined sleep.”

MenWaySoulBodyTurnsLostSleepExistenceBloodCenturyIllusionOvercomingSeekingDeeperAwakeStreamsRestlessAwakenedBetter WaysRefined
Author:Flann O'Brien
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