Drinkers and Thinkers

The wit and wisdom of Ireland.

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“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.” ~ James Joyce

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“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

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“If you strike us down now we shall rise again and renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland; you cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom. If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom then our children will win it by a better deed.” ~ Pádraig Pearse

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“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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“May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you’re going, and the insight to know when you’re going too far.” ~ Irish Blessing

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“Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter ray.” ~ Oliver Goldsmith

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“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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“The English came and took our lands and turned them into barren wastes. We took their language and made it beautiful.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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“Saint Patrick and the Christian religion brought a great deal of misery to Ireland. We were better off under the druids, dancing in circles under the sun.” ~ Brendan Behan

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“One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.” ~ Oscar Wilde

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“No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has the right to say to his country - thus far shalt thou go and no further.” ~ Charles Stewart Parnell

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“The Irish people will only be free, when they own everything from the plough to the stars.” ~ James Connolly

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“I leave for the guidance of other revolutionaries, who may tread the path which I have trod, this advice; never treat with the enemy, never to surrender to his mercy, but to fight to a finish.” ~ Éamonn Ceannt

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“The real riches of the Irish nation will be the men and women of the Irish nation.” ~ Michael Collins

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"They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but 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." ~ Pádraig Pearse

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"Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained." ~ Seamus Heaney

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