Patrick Pearse

“The fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”

“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.”

“Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.”

“There are things more horrible than bloodshed, and slavery is one of them.”

“We have to recognise that we are not going to get our freedom by peaceful means.”

“O wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true?”

“I care not though I were to live but one day and one night, provided my name were for ever remembered among my countrymen.”

“The beauty of the world hath made me sad, this beauty that will pass.”

“To the deed that I see and the death that I shall die I go with a laugh upon my lips.”

“I am come of the seed of the people, the people that sorrow, that have no treasure but hope.”

“Blood is a cleansing and sanctifying thing, and the nation that regards it as the final horror has lost its manhood.”

“We serve Ireland, and in serving Ireland we are serving our generation, and in serving our generation we are serving God.”

“A school, in our Irish phrase, is a garden where the apples of gold are laid.”

“For the story of a defeat is a story of glory.”

“Nationalism is a religion; in its heroic ages it is the purest of all religions.”

“We do not profess to represent the aristocracy... We profess to represent the men of no property.”