Irish Proverbs, Curses & Quotes

	You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.		Need teaches a plan.
		A lock is better than suspicion.

	Youth sheds many a skin. The steed (horse) does not retain its speed forever.		A hen is heavy when carried far.
	A silent mouth is melodious.	A hound's food is in its legs.

			A trade not properly learned is an enemy.
	As the big hound is, so will the pup be.

Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die.

You must live with a person to know a person. If you want to know me come and live with me.

Even a small thorn causes festering.

He who gets a name for early rising can stay in bed until midday.

It's not a matter of upper and lower class but of being up a while and down a while.

If you do not sow in the spring you will not reap in the autumn.

If you want to be criticized, marry.

It is the good horse that draws its own cart.

Lack of resource has hanged many a person.

It takes time to build castles. Rome was not built in a day.

Listen to the sound of the river and you will get a trout.

May you have a bright future - as the chimney sweep said to his son.

When the liquor was gone the fun was gone.

When the drop (drink) is inside, the sense is outside.

When the apple is ripe it will fall.

The light heart lives long.

The mills of God grind slowly but they grind finely.

The smallest thing outlives the human being.

Walk straight, my son - as the old crab said to the young crab.

The raggy colt often made a powerful horse.

The man with the boots does not mind where he places his foot.

The hole is more honorable than the patch.

The day will come when the cow will have use for her tail.

People live in each other's shelter.

Mere words do not feed the friars.

Wine divulges truth.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

When a twig grows hard it is difficult to twist it. Every beginning is weak.

One look before is better than two behind.

It is sweet to drink but bitter to pay for.

It is not a secret if it is known by three people.

It is better to exist unknown to the law.

.Youth does not mind where it sets its foot.

It is a long road that has no turning.

Instinct is stronger than upbringing.

It is a bad hen that does not scratch herself.

It is the quiet pigs that eat the meal.

Patience is poultice for all wounds.

Nature breaks through the eyes of the cat.

He who comes with a story to you brings two away from you.

Good as drink is, it ends in thirst.

Be neither intimate nor distant with the clergy.

Age is honorable and youth is noble.

A drink precedes a story.

A friend's eye is a good mirror.

You're not as young as you used to be. But you're not as old as you're going to be. So watch it!

A drink precedes a story.

Life is like a cup of tea, it's all in how you make it!

When fire is applied to a stone it cracks.

Necessity knows no law.

Quiet people are well able to look after themselves.

Put silk on a goat, and it's still a goat.

The wearer best knows where the shoe pinches.

The work praises the man.

		The well fed does not understand the lean.		The world would not make a racehorse of a donkey.
	There is hope from the sea, but none from the grave.		There is no fireside like your own fireside.

There is no luck except where there is discipline.

There is no need like the lack of a friend.

There is no strength without unity.

Thirst is the end of drinking and sorrow is the end of drunkenness.

Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst.

Two thirds of the work is the semblance.

	Time is a great story teller.		Two shorten the road.
		May you live all the days of your life. And, may the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past!

May those who love us love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limping!

May the enemies of Ireland never meet a friend.

May the curse of Mary Malone and her nine blind illegitimate children chase you so far over the hills of Damnation that the Lord Himself can't find you with a telescope!

To HELL with you! - Go hIfreann leat! (/guh hif-rin lyat/)

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat. --Alex Levine--		St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time -- a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic. --Adrienne Cook.--		Ireland is rich in literature that understands a soul's yearnings, and dancing that understands a happy heart. --Margaret Jackson --
	This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever. --Sigmund Freud (about the Irish)--		Maybe it's bred in the bone, but the sound of pipes is a little bit of heaven to some of us. --Nancy O'Keeefe--		In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs. -- Sir John Pentland Mahaffy--
I'm troubled, I'm dissatisfied. I'm Irish. --Marianne Moore "Spenser's Ireland"--		There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting. --John Millington Synge--		"I am of Ireland And the Holy Land of Ireland And time runs on" cried she Come out of charity, Come dance with me in Ireland" -William Butler Yeats--
	On she went, and her maiden smile In safety lighted her round the Green Isle; And blest forever was she who relied Upon Erin's honor and Erin's pride. --Thomas Moore--		O Ireland isn't it grand you look-- Like a bride in her rich adornin? And with all the pent-up love of my heart I bid you the top o' the mornin! --John Locke "The Exile's Return"--		For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad For all their wars are merry And all their songs are sad --Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse--