It is not those who can inflict the most but those that can suffer the most who will conquer.

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Quoted in Pete Hamill, "'It is those that can suffer most who will conquer'" [Review of J. Bowyer Bell's The Secret Army: The IRA], The New York Times (5 September 1971), and in Brian Maye, "An Irishman's Diary on a prophetic play by Terence MacSwiney", The Irish Times (12 November 2014). Some sources replace "conquer" with "prevail"

More quotes by Terence MacSwiney

I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release.

I want you to bear witness that I die as a Soldier of the Irish Republic.

If I die the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it.

In a physical contest on the field of battle it is allowable to use tactics and strategy, to retreat as well as advance, to have recourse to a ruse as well as open attack; but in matters of principle there can be no tactics, there is one straightforward course to follow, and that course must be found and followed without swerving to the end.

Principles of Freedom (1921)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Terence MacSwiney (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.

It is not those who can inflict the most but those that can suffer the most who will conquer.

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