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Quote by Joseph O'Connor

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My Father's House

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Author

Joseph O'Connor
Joseph O'Connor

Joseph O'Connor is an Irish novelist known for his profound character portrayal and rich narrative skills. His works often explore the relationship between individuals and society, history, and memory, and are highly appreciated by readers. more

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“In the light of what Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus wrote it is amusing to find that Thomas himself became the butt of a jest which embodied what they both loathed. Thomas was silently composing a hymn in his mind while eating a lamprey. He finished hymn and lamprey together. To give thanks to God for his hymn he muttered one of Christ’s seven last words on the Cross, Consummatum est! — ‘It is finished!’ Bystanders were shocked. They thought he was lightly referring to the lamprey he had just consumed.”

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“It is no coincidence that precisely when things started going downhill with the gods, politics gained its bliss-making character. There would be no reason for objecting to this, since the gods, too were not exactly fair. But at least people saw temples instead of termite architecture. Bliss is drawing closer; it is no longer in the afterlife, it will come, though not momentarily, sooner or later in the here and now - in time. The anarch thinks more primitively; he refuses to give up any of his happiness. "Make thyself happy" is his basic law. It his response to the "Know thyself" at the temple of Apollo in Delphi. These two maxims complement each other; we must know our happiness and our measure.”

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