# Quote — Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization

> Irish generosity extended not only to a variety of people but to a variety of ideas. ...they brought into their libraries everything they could lay their hands on. ...Not for them the scruples of Saint Jerome... they began to devour all of the old Greek and Latin pagan literature that came their way.

- Author: [Thomas Cahill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill.md)
- Book: [How the Irish Saved Civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#How_the_Irish_Saved_Civilization_(1995)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/irish-generosity-extended

## More from this book

> Never interested in impressive edifices, Irish monks preferred to spend their time in study, prayer, farming—and, of course, copying. ...a little hut for each monk... a refectory and kitchen; a scriptorium and library; a smithy, a kiln, a mill, and a couple of barns; a modest church—and they were in business.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/never-interested-in-impressive.md)

> Beowulf grappling with the monstors was a type of Christ grappling with Satan.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/beowulf-grappling-with.md)

> For a century and a half—from the middle of the fifth century to the end of the sixth—there had been... no formal communication between Rome and the Christians of Britain, nor had there been any between Rome and Ireland...

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/for-a-century.md)