The Irish have a flair for wringing from death the last drop of emotion and they do not quite understand those who… — Dervla Murphy Death Copy Share Image
apartheid still hangs in the air like a poisonous cloud left over from chemical warfare. — Dervla Murphy Africa Copy Share Image
“I thank God for my sanguine temperament, which refuses to allow me to believe in disaster until it is finally manifest” — Dervla Murphy Disaster Copy Share Image
one of the advantages of cycling is that it automatically prevents a journey from becoming an Expedition. — Dervla Murphy Advantage Copy Share Image
“Even a brief glimpse of what we were is valuable to help understand what we are” — Dervla Murphy Glimpse Copy Share Image
On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as presents and a few days later I decided to cycle to… — Dervla Murphy Atlas Copy Share Image
hatred, however apparently justifiable, excusable or inevitable, always damages the hater. — Dervla Murphy Damage Copy Share Image
Buying a bicycle is a momentous event, akin to marriage: you are acquiring a partner. — Dervla Murphy Bicycle Copy Share Image
On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as gifts, and a few days later I decided to cycle to… — Dervla Murphy Ambition Copy Share Image
[On Addis Ababa:] Among the city's handicaps are an immaturity for which no one can be blamed, as it was founded only… — Dervla Murphy Addis ababa Copy Share Image
Is this something else our age does - on the one hand make communication easier than ever before, while on the other… — Dervla Murphy Age Copy Share Image
Undoubtedly the Afghans must be, by our standards, the best-looking people in the world. They have everything; height, proportions, carriage, features and… — Dervla Murphy Asia Copy Share Image
the sudden violent dispossession accompanying a refugee flight is much more than the loss of a permanent home and a traditional occupation,… — Dervla Murphy Close friends Copy Share Image
one feels guilty on behalf of Western civilisation. What damage are we doing, blindly and swiftly, to those races who are being… — Dervla Murphy Awareness Copy Share Image
... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures. — Dervla Murphy Emotional Copy Share Image
poverty denotes a lack of necessities and simplicity a lack of needs. — Dervla Murphy Needs Copy Share Image
Whatever the theologians might say about heaven being in a state of union with God, I knew it consisted of an infinite… — Dervla Murphy Eternity Copy Share Image
“There has been a sustained and dreadfully successful campaign to make most people dissatisfied with what I would call the normal life… — Dervla Murphy Life Copy Share Image
... I know a number of Western children who would benefit greatly if only someone were primitive enough to inhibit the development… — Dervla Murphy Benefits Copy Share Image
Sunnis consider Shias a pack of unwholesome fanatics and Shias consider Sunnis a gang of lukewarm no-goods - there's nothing like religion… — Dervla Murphy Brotherly Copy Share Image
It is far easier to explain to a three-year-old how babies are made than to explain the processes whereby bread or sugar… — Dervla Murphy Babies Copy Share Image
The more I see of life in these 'undeveloped countries' and of the methods adopted to 'improve' them, the more depressed I… — Dervla Murphy Adopted Copy Share Image
Without evading the grimness of life in much of modern Africa, one can recognize that this continent is not yet sick as… — Dervla Murphy Consuming Copy Share Image
There are two phases of enjoyment in journeying through an unknown country - the eager phase of wondering interest in every detail,… — Dervla Murphy Country Copy Share Image
I wonder if those experts who tell us that our sexual appetite is the strongest know what real thirst feels like; I… — Dervla Murphy Appetite Copy Share Image
“Certainly nobody in the large grubby restaurant 'wanted to know'. My two fellow-diners were truck drivers being eyed hopefully by five adolescent… — Dervla Murphy Truck Drivers Copy Share Image
This is a city of absolute enchantment in the literal sense of the word. It loosens all the bonds binding the traveller… — Dervla Murphy Absolutes Copy Share Image
To me writing was not a career but a necessity. And so it remains, though I am now, technically, a professional writer.… — Dervla Murphy Baffled Copy Share Image
With our mad lust for Uniformity and a Higher Standard of Living and Expanding Markets, we go to a country like Afghanistan… — Dervla Murphy Afghanistan Copy Share Image
perhaps there is something more than courtesy behind the dissembling reticence of childhood. ... Most artists dislike having their incomplete work considered… — Dervla Murphy Analogies Copy Share Image
![“[On Addis Ababa:] Among the city's handicaps are an immaturity for which no one can be blamed, as it was founded only eighty years ago, and a proliferation of architectural excesses for which many people can and should be blamed.” quote by Dervla Murphy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ec0/dervla-murphy-20135_architecture_on-addis-ababa-among-the-city-s-handicap_1176958.jpg)
