"It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody."

Respect

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Respect as articulated by Brendan Behan. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Respect provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Brendan Behan

Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely acknowledged alcohol dependence, despite attempts to treat it, impacted his creative capacities and contributed to health and social problems which curtailed his artistic output and finally his life. He is widely regarded as one of Ireland's greatest writers.

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More by Brendan Behan

"When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."

— Brendan Behan
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"The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted."

— Brendan Behan
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"If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks."

— Brendan Behan
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"I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."

— Brendan Behan
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More about Respect

"As to honor - you know - it's a very fine mediaeval inheritance which women never got hold of. It wasn't theirs."

— Joseph Conrad
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"If you are killed because you are a writer, that's the maximum expression of respect, you know."

— Mario Vargas Llosa
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"How sick one gets of being 'good,' how much I should respect myself if I could burst out and make everyone wretched for twenty-four hours embody selfishness."

— Alice James
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"Second, there are two problems with respect to mobile homes in particular. One is we obviously don't want to put them in a flood plain, because if there's another flood, you're going to lose the mobile home."

— Michael Chertoff
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