Irish Sayings and Quotations.

George Washington.

"Ireland, thou friend of my country in my country's most friendless days, much injured, much enduring land, accept this poor tribute from one who esteems thy worth, and mourns thy desolation."

On Ireland's support for America during the revolution.

George Bernard Shaw

“Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.”

"Beware of the man whose God is in the skies."

"A doctor's reputation is made by the number of eminent men who die under his care."

"Ireland, sir, for good or evil, is like no other place under heaven, and no man can touch its sod or breathe its air without becoming better or worse."

Read about Shaw.

Brendan Behan.

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

Jonathan Swift

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

W B Yeates.

"A drunkard is a dead man,
and all dead men are drunk."

"For the good are always the merry,
Save for an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle,
And the merry love to dance"
From 'The Fiddler of Dooney'

Read about Yeates.

George Best.
( Footballer)

"I spent 90% of my money on woman and drink. The rest I wasted."

"I used to go missing quite alot, .Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World."

John Millington Synge

"There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting."

"A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned...for he will go out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we only be drownded now and again."

From his book 'The Aran Islands,' 1907

Read about Synge.

John Lennon.

"If you could drink dreams like the Irish streams
Then the world would be high as the mountain of morn
In the Pool they told us the story
How the English divided the land."

From his song 'The Luck of the Irish'

President George Bush.

"This day is a happy one for America.
In some places Americans get a little too happy."

Speaking to Bertie Ahern at the White House on St. Patrick's Day 2004

Oliver Goldsmith.

"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it."

Read about Goldsmith.

G.K. Chesterton

"The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad. For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad."

Michael Collins.

"I tell you this, early this morning I signed my death warrant."

After signing the treaty with England which created the Irish Free State as a dominion within the British Commonwealth. He was later assassinated during the Irish Civil War

Read about Collins.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

"If my grandfather hadn't left, I'd be working over here at the Albatross Company."

Speaking during his visit to Ireland in 1963

Edna O'Brien.

"When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious."

C. S. Lewis

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

Winston Churchill.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."

Eamon De Valera.

"Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliations, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning to consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?”

In a radio speech on Victory Day in Europe, May 8, 1945, in response to criticism by Winston Churchill of Ireland’s neutrality in World War II. In the speach he also thanked Churchill for not invading Ireland.

Brendan Behan.

"I am a drinker with a writing problem."

"I only drink on two occasions - When I am thirsty and when I'm not thirsty."

Jonathan Swift

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

"It was a bold man who ate the first oyster."

Winston Churchill

"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."