Quotes by James Sheehan

“William James, who believed the decisive thing about us was not intelligence, strength, or wealth. “The real question posed to us is the effort we are willing to make,””

“The trouble with this country,” the late John Berryman once told fellow poet James Dickey, “is that a man can live his entire life without knowing whether or not he is a coward.””

“Maybe being human means feeling internally complex but also feeling completely incapable of communicating that complexity to anyone. Then, whenever someone asks what you like to do, you just panic and say "Read," even though that's one of the very first things they teach every human to do.””

“In the 1950s, at the very beginning of the integration process, Raymond Aron wrote that “the European idea is empty, it has neither the transcendence of messianic ideologies nor the immanence of concrete patriotism.” Aron was half right. The idea of Europe did not evoke emotional commitment. It did not stir people’s hearts as nations sometimes had done. It was not something for which many would have been willing to give their lives. But the European idea was not empty”