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Éamon de Valera
19 quotes
“I have not lived solely amongst the intellectuals. The first fifteen years of my life that formed my character were lived amongst the Irish people down in Limerick; therefore, I know what I am talking about; and whenever I wanted to know what the Irish people wanted I had only to examine my own heart and it told me straight off what the Irish people wanted.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Debate on Treaty, Second Dáil, 6 January 1922
“It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins and it will be recorded at my expense.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comment in 1966, quoted in Michael Collins : A Biography (1990) by Tim Pat Coogan, p. 432.
“When Christianity was brought to her shores it was received with a joy and eagerness, and held with a tenacity of which there is hardly such another example.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Next to her services to religion, Ireland's greatest contribution to the welfare of humanity has been the example of devotion to freedom which she has given throughout seven hundred years.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ireland has produced in Dean Swift perhaps the greatest satirist in the English language; in Edmund Burke probably the greatest writer on politics; in William Carleton a novelist of the first rank; in Oliver Goldsmith a poet of rare merit. Henry Grattan was one of the most eloquent orators of his time—the golden age of oratory in the English language. Theobald Wolfe Tone has left us one of the most delightful autobiographies in literature. Several recent or still living Irish novelists and poets have produced work which is likely to stand the test of time.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Irish genius has always stressed spiritual and intellectual rather than material values.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this day, if Ireland is faithful to her mission, and, please God, she will be, if as of old she recalls men to forgotten truths, if she places before them the ideals of justice, of order, of freedom rightly used, of Christian brotherhood—then, indeed, she can do the world a service as great as that which she rendered in the time of Columcille and Columbanus, because the need of our time is in no wise less.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter what the future may hold for the Irish nation, the seven years — 1916 to 1923 — must ever remain a period of absorbing interest. Not for over two hundred years has there been such a period of intense and sustained effort to regain the national sovereignty and independence. Over the greater part of the period it was the effort of, one might say, the entire nation. An overwhelming majority of the people of this island combined voluntarily during those years in pursuit of a common purpose.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature never intended me to be a partisan leader … Every instinct of mine would indicate that I was meant to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, or even a bishop, rather than the leader of a revolution.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For Irishmen, there is no football game to match rugby and if all our young men played rugby not only would we beat England and Wales but France and the whole lot of them put together.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted from a 1957 speech.
“Of course I wrote most of the Constitution myself. I remember hesitating for a long time over the US presidential system. But it wouldn't have done — we were too trained in English democracy to sit down under a dictatorship which is what the American system really is.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ministers not responsible to parliament — that would never do. Besides, I wanted to prepare a nice quiet job without too much work for my old age. Still, I admit, I was tempted. Look at the way de Gaulle rules France … absolute rule … very efficient.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“England pretends it is not by the naked sword, but by the good will of the people of the country that she is here. We will draw the naked sword to make her bare her own naked sword.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (25 October 1917).
“Partition is after all only an old fortress of crumbled masonry — held together with the plaster of fiction.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (January 1918).
“I am against this Treaty not because I am a man of war but because I am a man of peace. I am against this Treaty because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great Britain and Ireland.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (18 December 1921).
“All history is man's efforts to realise ideals.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (5 February 1929).
“A Dhomhnall, I have to tell you, you are abolished.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland - happy, vigorous, spiritual - that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved. One hundred years ago, the Young Irelanders, by holding up the vision of such an Ireland before the people, inspired and moved them spiritually as our people had hardly been moved since the Golden Age of Irish civilisation. Fifty years later, the founders of the Gaelic League similarly inspired and moved the people of their day. So, later, did the leaders of the Irish Volunteers. We of this time, if we have the will and active enthusiasm, have the opportunity to inspire and move our generation in like manner. We can do so by keeping this thought of a noble future for our country constantly before our eyes, ever seeking in action to bring that future into being, and ever remembering that it is for our nation as a whole that future must be sought.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio broadcast, "On Language & the Irish Nation" (17 March 1943), often called "The Ireland that we dreamed of" speech
“Ireland's music is of a singular beauty. Based on pentatonic scale its melodies reach back to a period anterior to the dawn of musical history. It stands pre-eminent amongst the music of the Celtic nations. It is characterised by perfection of form and variety of melodic content. It is particularly rich in tunes that imply exquisite sensitiveness. The strange fitfulness of the lamentations and love songs, the transition from gladness to pathos, have thrilled the experts, and made them proclaim our music the most varied and the most poetical in the world. Equal in rhythmic variety are our dance tunes—spirited and energetic in keeping with the temperament of our people.”
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source