Celts Quotes

“The Celt, and his cromlechs, and his pillar-stones, these will not change much – indeed, it is doubtful if anybody at all changes at any time. In spite of hosts of deniers, and asserters, and wise-men, and professors, the majority still are adverse to sitting down to dine thirteen at a table, or being helped to salt, or walking under a ladder, of seeing a single magpie flirting his chequered tale. There are, of course, children of light who have set their faces against all this, although even a newspaperman, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for everyone is a visionary, if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt, unlike any other, is a visionary without scratching.”
― William Butler Yeats

“...Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, we shall find that priests had all the knowledge, and really governed all mankind. Examine Mahometanism, trace Christianity from its first promulgation; knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the clergy. And, even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands, and fly into your face and eyes.

[Letters to John Taylor, 1814, XVIII, p. 484]”
― John Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

“Frequently we do not leave the past behind. We clasp on to it. We dissect it, and let fears for the future, tempered by the past, unconsciously prevent us from taking up the task eternal.”
― Ray Simpson, Exploring Celtic Spirituality

“The Welsh are not like any other people in Britain, and they know how separate they are. They are the Celts, the tough little wine-dark race who were the original possessors of the island, who never mixed with the invaders coming later from the east, but were slowly driven into the western mountains.”
― Laurie Lee, I Can't Stay Long

“To the brave belong all things. - motto of the Celts and appears in Defender: Intrepid 1 and Hunter: Intrepid 2.”
― Chris Allen

“Aside from a few minor quibbles, the Codex Celtarum is simply an amazing book. It’s not just one of the bestCastles & Crusades sourcebooks ever, but it’s something that ANY fantasy game setting can pick up and use/adapt, especially if they are looking for a Celtic flair for their homebrew world and stories. There is so little in the way of mechanics, that you won’t ever have to do that much converting, especially if you already use an OSR system. As usual, the new Celtic content line for Castles & Crusades continues to impress.”
― Alexander Lucard

“The Hittites and Amorites were therefore mingled together in the mountains of Palestine like the two races which ethnologists tell us go to form the modern Kelt.”
― A. H. SAYCE., The Hittites: The Story of a Forgotten Empire

“We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants. We see more things than the ancients and things more distant, but it is due neither to the sharpness of our sight nor the greatness of out stature. It is simply because they have lent us their own.”
― St Bernard of Clairveaux

“I know precisely what honor is, Heracles. Honor is the artifice kings sell the peasants’ sons so that they may fight and die without pay. Honor is what drives a peaceful man to bloody vengeance. Honor is what drove the Celts to behead the children of the Apache Courts.
- (The Egyptian God) Bes”
― Jonathan Maas, Hellenica

“I know precisely what honor is, Heracles. Honor is the artifice kings sell the peasants’ sons so that they may fight and die without pay. Honor is what drives a peaceful man to bloody vengeance. Honor is what drove the Celts to behead the children of the Apache Courts.”
― Bes

“Timeless
There’s a place in the far west of Ireland. A place called Mayo -- a rain-soaked, misty county on the wild Atlantic.

The name alone is of another time and conjures up mystery and myth. This is a place to disappear, to live unseen, where few questions are asked.

You can lose yourself in Mayo.”
― Dominic Geraghty, Sumerian Vortex: Music From A Lost Civilization

“I hear the soldier’s footsteps right outside
From Roman legions that are hunting me—
A mother, warrior, Boudica, queen.
That swarm of angry hornets aims to sting
My skin with fire, piercing me with pain.
I will never accept an end like that.
Now happily spared the brutality
Since you opened up the door to hide me,
Anam Cara, you prove to be a friend,
To help in my hour of direst need
Just as we had previously agreed.”
― Ruth Ann Oskolkoff, The Bones of the Poor

“Some sudden light illuminates my mind.
Serene as tufted clouds in summer skies
Slowly floating through the expanse of air.
Calm like the lark who watches from her perch.
Weightless like a small dandelion seed.
Freedom. I can float away with the breeze.
I feel attuned to the sun and the sky,
To the yellow oxlip, rosettes of leaves,
Clusters of spring flowers under the trees.
I feel a presence and sense life rising,
Spirit in all things, living soul, divine
Shimmer of being within, so sublime.”
― Ruth Ann Oskolkoff, The Bones of the Poor

“Very soon, I will be travelling there
With the great heron out to the North Sea
To dance with the deep, where I will just be;
Roaming the headwaters and tidal flats
Liminal as light upon the surface,
In waves that crash on rounded marshy coasts.
Think of me as the sun rises each dawn
When you feel that surge of an inner strength
With each ephemeral moment of time.
I know I will be there eternally,
Immersed, one with the great estuary.”
― Ruth Ann Oskolkoff, The Bones of the Poor

“Voici les renseignements que je viens de recevoir au sujet de ce que vous m’aviez demandé sur les relations précolombiennes avec l’Amérique : les moines celtiques d’Irlande seraient allés évangéliser le Nord-Ouest du Canada, et de là ils seraient descendus peut-être jusqu’au Pérou, où l’on retrouve trace d’un évangélisateur blanc qu’on a identifié bien à tort avec l’apôtre Saint-Thomas. Quant aux Templiers, c’est au Mexique qu’ils auraient eu des possessions. Tout cela se trouve dans les travaux d’Eugène Beauvois, dont les tirages à part sont à la bibliothèque Nationale où on peut facilement les consulter.

D’autre part, j’ai vu qu’il a paru récemment un livre intitulé “Vers les Terres fortunées, 780-1490” par Mornand (Éditions de la Nouvelle France, 1946) qui, d’après le compte rendu qui en était donné, se rapporte également à l’histoire des moines irlandais en Amérique ; la date de 780 serait, si j’ai bien compris, celle de la fondation de leurs premiers établissements qui seraient ainsi antérieurs aux expéditions normandes.

Croyez, je vous prie, Monsieur, à mes très distingués sentiments.

Correspondance avec Théodore Monod,
Le Caire, le 24 août 1947”
― René Guénon

“The gods of the old world have stood aside, obeyed the ancient laws giving free will to men, and now, when our realm and yours hang in the balance, we are still bound by our covenants. The laws are clear: we can act only through man. And in all the world, there are only two strong enough to defeat them. One born for it, the other through great sacrifice.”
― Jessica Leake, Beyond a Darkened Shore

“Suae quisque fortunae faber est”
― Anna Ferrari, Insondabile Destino

“Now the author will consider the third name, and perhaps the most outstanding of all: al-Dhât. This word, in Arabic, is also feminine. Allâh is Beyond the Beyond, higher than any action, manner or condition, and any thought that any being may have. This transcendence of all qualities denotes the Divine Feminine. The renowned Sûfî master Najm al-Din Kubra wrote of the Dhât as the "Mother of the divine attributes." On this makam or "level of existence", femininity corresponds to interiority and masculinity to manifestation. The ancient Celtic Druids would perform a strange rite after two people married. The Druid would go into the house in which the marriage was consummated and reappear dressed in the bride's gown. He would do this to demonstrate the balance between the masculine and feminine aspects within himself. The Druids were ancient Celtic priests, shamans and philosophers.”
― Laurence Galian, Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess

“Moses found the wises man in this sacred meeting place of the waters. His name is not given in the Koran, but all know him as the aforementioned great immortal Khezr. Khezr is and is not a particular person. We know now that, for example, Merlin was a title earned by a particular person. There were many Merlins among the Celts in ancient times; so, too, with Khezr.”
― Laurence Galian, Beyond Duality: The Art of Transcendence

“Since the eighteenth century, the Celtic fringes have posed for the urban intellectual as a location of the wild, the natural, the creative and the insecure. We can often find it said, with warm approval, that the Celts are impetuous, natural, spiritual and naive. I try in what follows to make a clear that such an approval is drawing on the same system of structural oppositions as is the accusation that the Celt is violent (impetuous), animal (natural), devoid of any sense of property (spiritual), or without manners (naive). I include the bracketed terms as effective synonyms of the words that precede them, that we would use to praise rather than deride... We are dealing here with a rich verbal and metaphorical complex, and I have not thought it very important to distinguish between those who find a favourable opinion of the Gael within this complex, and those who dip into it to find the materials for derision. In both cases the coherence of the statements can only be found at their point of origin, the urban intellectual discourse of the English language, and not at their point of application, the Celt, the Gael, the primative who is ever departing, whether his exit be made to jeers or to tears.”
― Malcolm Chapman, The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture

“Listen close—my previous life was good.
My mind has many pleasant memories:
Camping on the Wensome’s chalk river shores,
Running in green fields, picking spring flowers,
Exploring the sand dunes and pine forests,
A picnic on the mud flats, carefree days
At home with my family in the village,
Watching the terns, sedge warblers and swallows,
Lessons in cooking and animal care,
Untamed rivers and lakes, games with my friends,
Sandy beaches, marshes, fens, and reed beds,
The barn owl who liked to sing every night,
Stirring conversations with my husband,
Mundane chores alongside both my daughters,
Magical countryside, large gray stone blocks,
Tall flint walls in a nearby Roman town,
Spongy saltmarsh, woodlands, and butterflies.
It was all a gift, all blessed—and now
I feel an unexpected clarity.”
― Ruth Ann Oskolkoff, The Bones of the Poor