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Quote#Speech

Every night as I gazed up at the window I said to myself softly the…

Quote byJames Joyce · 1882–1941

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Dubliners (1914), "The Sisters".

English (original)

Every night as I gazed up at the window I said to myself softly the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.

— James Joyce

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