20th century Quote by Thomas Cahill

““The phrase "the violent bear it away" fascinated the 20th century Irish-American storyteller Flannery O'Connor, who used it as the title of one of her novels. O'Connor's surname connects her to an Irish royal family descended from Conchobor (pronounced "Connor"), the prehistoric king of Ulster who was foster father to Cuchulainn and "husband" of the unwilling Derdriu. In the western world, the antiquity of Irish lineages is exceeded only by that of the Jews.””

Thomas Cahill

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Wherever they went the Irish brought with them their books, many unseen in Europe for centuries and tied to their waists as signs of triumph, just as Irish heroes had once tied to their waists their enemies' heads. Where they went they brought their love of learning and their skills in bookmaking. In the bays and valleys of their exile,…

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The Irish innovation was to make all confession a completely private affair between penitent and priest - and to make it as repeatable as…

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“They understood, as few have understood before or since, how fleeting life is and how pointless to try to hold on to things or…

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“We followed the rump of a misguiding woman. It is the usual thing for a herd led by a mare to be strayed and…

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“Cujus regio, ejus religio (Whose region it is, his is the religion).”

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We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most…

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“I see a sweet country. I could rest my weapon there.”

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“We will never make it under our own stem. Having made this connection, Augustine falls apart. What he describes at this point in the…

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The Jews started it all-and by 'it' I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of…

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