His sensitive nature was still smarting under the lashes of an undivided and squalid way of life. His soul was still disquieted and cast down by the dull phenomenon of Dublin. He had emerged from a two years' spell of revery to find himself in the midst of a new scene, every event and figure of which affected him intimately, disheartened him or allured and, whether alluring or disheartening, filled him always with unrest and bitter thoughts. All the leisure which his school life left him was passed in the company of subversive writers whose jibes and violence of speech set up a ferment in his brain before they passed out of it into his crude writings. . James Joyce
About This Quote

Meet Sherlock Holmes, a detective who might have been your best friend. And maybe not. This quote is from the introduction to the book A Game of Shadows by John Gardner, which tells the story of Holmes’ life between 1891 and 1894. The quote above was written by his brother Mycroft, who was worried that Sherlock’s head was getting too big. This reflects on how fragile people are when they are young, sometimes even before they are born.

Source: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

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More Quotes By James Joyce
  1. His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before.
  2. You made me confess the fears that I have. But I will tell you also what I do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not...
  3. And yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.
  4. Why is it that words like these seem dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?
  5. Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.
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