Skip to content

Éamon de Valera Quotes

1882–1975 Ireland

Eamon de Valera (14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an Irish politician, born George de Valero, Irish name Éamonn de Bhailéara.

Ireland
Academics
Mathematicians
Politicians

Also known as: Eamon de Valera

Random Éamon de Valera quote

13 quotes

All history is man's efforts to realise ideals.

I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

Partition is after all only an old fortress of crumbled masonry — held together with the plaster of fiction.

I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

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.

The Irish genius has always stressed spiritual and intellectual rather than material values.

Ireland Among the Nations (1933)

A Dhomhnall, I have to tell you, you are abolished.

I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

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.

Ireland Among the Nations (1933)

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.

I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

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.

Judging Dev (2007)

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.

Ireland Among the Nations (1933)

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.

I'm Glad You Asked Me That (2007)

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.

Judging Dev (2007)

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.

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.

Judging Dev (2007)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Éamon de Valera (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.