John Boyle O'Reilly Quotes:

The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly, Liam Barry (1994). “Selected poems, speeches, dedications and letters of John Boyle O'Reilly, 1844-1890”

Topics: Flower, Passion, White, White Flowers, Falcon

When honor comes to you, be ready to take it; But reach not to seize it before it is near.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Honor, Ready, Your Honor

The wealth of mankind is the wisdom they leave.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Wisdom, Wealth, Mankind

Well blest is he who has a dear one dead; A friend he has whose face will never change- A dear communion that will not grow strange; The anchor of a love is death.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1913). “Selected Poems”

Topics: Death, Love Is, Anchors, Dear Ones

It is heroic to prepare for war with a tyrant power. Patriots will always win the admiration of mankind for daring to meet the bloodshed of battle for their country's liberty. But the patriot who is willing to go to that sacrifice will be the first to condemn the aimless and secret shedding of blood in time of peace.

Topics: Country, War, Sacrifice, Shedding Blood

How shall I a habit break? As you did that habit make, As you gathered, you must lose; As you yielded, now refuse, Thread by thread the strands we twist Till they bind us neck and wrist, Thread by thread the patient hand Must untwine ere free we stan

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1913). “Selected Poems”

Topics: Hands, Twists, Necks

Too late we learn, a man must hold his friend Unjudged, accepted, trusted to the end.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1886). “In Bohemia”

Topics: Friendship, Real Friends, Men, Trust And Friendship

And we who have toiled for freedom's law, have we sought for freedom's soul? Have we learned at last that human right is not a part but the whole?

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1913). “Selected Poems”

Topics: Rights, Law, Soul

... every man on the planet Has just as much right as yourself to the road.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Men, Rights, Planets

Woman suffrage is an unjust, unreasonable, unspiritual abnormality. It is a hard, undigested, tasteless, devitalized proposition. It is a half-fledged, unmusical, Promethean abomination. It is a quack bolus to reduce masculinity even by the obliteration of femininity.

Topics: Half, Unjust, Abomination, Suffrage, Abnormality

Anonymity is the fame of the future.

Topics: Social Media, Fame, Anonymity

Take gifts with a sigh: most men give to be paid.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Men, Giving, Sigh

Put least trust in him who is foremost to praise you, nor judge of a road till it draw to the end.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Judging, Praise, Ends

For the love that is purest and sweetest Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1907). “Watchwords”

Topics: Kissing, Desire, Lips

The organized charity, scrimped and iced, In the name of a cautious, statistical Christ.

source: - In Bohemia In Bohemia

Topics: Names, Charity, Statistics

For all time to come, the freedom and purity of the press are the test of national virtue and independence. No writer for the press, however humble, is free from the burden of keeping his purpose high and his integrity white.

source: - "Life of John Boyle O'Reilly, together with his complete poems and speeches edited by Mrs John Boyle O'Reilly" by James Jeffrey Roche, New York, (p. 195), 1891.

Topics: Integrity, Humble, White

The Greeks were the first boxers. Pugilism appears to have been one of the earliest distinctions in play and exercise that appeared between the Hellenes and their Asiatic fathers. The unarmed personal encounter was indicative of a sturdier manhood.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1888). “Ethics of Boxing and Manly Sport”

Topics: Father, Exercise, Play

I'd rather live in Bohemia than in any other land.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1886). “In Bohemia”

Topics: Land, Bohemia

The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity.

Topics: Right Words, Rarity

The world is large when its weary leagues two loving hearts divide; But the world is small when your enemy is loose on the other side.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1913). “Selected Poems”

Topics: Heart, Two, League, World Is Small

Loyalty is the greatest quality of the human heart.

Topics: Loyalty, Heart, Quality

Ireland is a fruitful mother of genius, but a barren nurse.

Topics: Mother, Nurse, Ireland And The Irish, Being Irish, Irish Writers

Who heeds not experience, trust him not.

Topics: Experience, Heed

Each heart holds the secret: 'Kindness' is the word.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1913). “Selected Poems”

Topics: Kindness, Heart, Secret

All that is worth seeing in good boxing can best be witnessed in a contest with soft gloves. Every value is called out: quickness, force, precision, foresight, readiness, pluck, and endurance. With these, the rowdy and 'rough' are not satisfied.

Topics: Boxing, Endurance, Rowdy, Boxing Gloves

Prize-Fighting is not the aim of boxing. This noble exercise ought not to be judged by the dishonesty or the low lives of too many of its professional followers. Let it stand alone, an athletic practice, on the same footing as boating or football.

Topics: Football, Exercise, Fighting

They who see the Flying Dutchman never, never reach the shore.

Topics: Flying, Shore

Putting prize-fighting altogether aside as one of the unavoidable evils attending on this manly exercise, the inestimable value of boxing as a training, discipline, and development of boys and young men remains.

Topics: Fighting, Exercise, Boys

The adoption of gloves for all contests will do more to preserve the practice of boxing than any other conceivable means. It will give pugilism new life, not only as a professional boxer's art, but as a general exercise.

Topics: Art, Mean, Exercise, Boxing Gloves

Doubt is brother-devil to Despair.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1907). “Watchwords”

Topics: Brother, Doubt, Despair

For peace do not hope; to be just you must break it. Still work for the minute and not for the year.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Peace, Years, Break

Our life a harp is, with unnumbered strings, And tones and symphonies; but our poor skill Some shallow notes from its great music brings.

source: - John Boyle O'Reilly (1882). “Songs, Legends and Ballads”

Topics: Life, Skills, Symphony

Be silent and safe-silence never betrays you.

Topics: Silence, Safe, Silent

A dreamer lives forever, And a toiler dies in a day.

Topics: Dream, Forever, Dreamer