Patrick Kavanagh

"Power without compassion is tyranny; compassion without power is sentiment"

"Humor is the grace note of a serious life"

"In relationships, honesty is the bridge and vulnerability is the foundation"

"Success is waking up and doing what you love before it becomes your job"

"The strength of a nation is measured by how it treats its weakest members"

"Technology promises to save time but steals away presence"

"Politics is the art of making enemies into temporary allies"

"War proves that man has learned nothing from history"

"Happiness is not found; it is chosen daily"

"Death teaches life its true value"

"Science without wonder becomes mere calculation"

"The family is where we practice love before we offer it to the world"

"A friend is someone who sees the best you could be and calls it forth"

"Motivation is borrowed enthusiasm; inspiration is your own fire"

"The important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so do, whatever best awakens in you a sense of love."

"To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to perceive that no shade of quality escapes it."

"A poet's job is to make life worth living."

"The peasant has no history. In all the countryside marked off by familiar Feature-streams and Stone-circles, the Past is numb."

"I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord God gave to me."

"The tragedy of modern life is not that we are tired but that we are bored."

"God is in the bits and pieces of Everyday."

"I learned the meaning of contentment from the simple people of the countryside."

"A writer must have the courage to be himself, no matter how unfashionable."

"The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who could not believe in himself."

"To ignore the actual world and dream of an ideal world is a great mistake."

"The genuine idea that's born in the country is made anew in the city."

"We must learn to read the small print of our daily experience."

"A man without dreams is a man without hope."

"The gift of poetry is to see the world as if for the first time."

"We are dying a little every day unless we are creating something beautiful."