Link Copied!
Seán O'Casey Quotes (1880-1964)
Playwright
About Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey (30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964); born John Casey, was an Irish playwright and memoirist whose works show his socialist and Irish republican sympathies. His plays include Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars.
Best Seán O'Casey Quotes
Shortest
Earliest
Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Seán O'Casey quotes.
“If England has any dignity left in the way of literature, she will forget for ever the pitiful antics of English Literature's performing flea.”
“I wouldn't be everlasting' cockin' me earth hear every little whisper that was floatin' around me! It's my rule never to lose me temper till it would be dethrimental to keep it.”
“The Drama's altar isn't on the stage: it is candlesticked and flowered in the box office. There is the gold, though there be no frankincense nor myrrh; and the gospel for the day always The Play will Run for a Year. The Dove of Inspiration, of the desire for inspiration, has flown away from it; and on its roof, now, the commonplace crow caws candidly.”
“Laughter is wine for the soul — laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness. Comedy and tragedy step through life together, arm in arm, all along, out along, down along lea. A laugh is a great natural stimulator, a pushful entry into life; and once we can laugh, we can live. It is the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.”
Seán O'Casey Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Seán O'Casey quotes by topic.
Seán O'Casey on Nuclear weapons
“The flame from the angel's sword in the Garden of Eden has been catalyzed into the atom bomb; God's thunderbolt became blunted, so Man's dunderbolt has become the Steel Star of Destruction.”
Seán O'Casey on Global catastrophic risk
“The flame from the angel's sword in the Garden of Eden has been catalyzed into the atom bomb; God's thunderbolt became blunted, so Man's dunderbolt [sic] has become the Steel Star of Destruction.”
What Seán O'Casey Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Seán O'Casey shared regarding contemporaries.
Seán O'Casey on Irish people
Seán O'Casey on P. G. Wodehouse
“It is amusing to read the various wails about the villainy of Wodehouse. The harm done to England's cause and to England's dignity is not the poor man's babble in Berlin, but the acceptance of him by a childish part of the people and the academic government of Oxford, dead from the chin up, as a person of any importance whatsoever in English humorous literature, or any literature at all. It is an ironic twist of retribution on those who banished Joyce and honoured Wodehouse. If England has any dignity left in the way of literature, she will forget for ever the pitiful antics of English Literature's performing flea. If Berlin thinks the poor fish great, so much the better for us.”
Quotes About Seán O'Casey
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Seán O'Casey from others.
Josephine Herbst "The Ruins of Memory" on Seán O'Casey
“there is no such thing as a writer untouched by his time. Even the most inner experience is a response to some outside. That response may lead Kafka to explore the dark region beyond human experience or explanation in The Castle or Sean O'Casey to write from a sense of mission Red Roses for Me.”
About Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey (30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964); born John Casey, was an Irish playwright and memoirist whose works show his socialist and Irish republican sympathies. His plays include Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars.