“Age brings about everything; but it is not the time, Madam, as we know, to be a prude at twenty.”

I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.

The road is long fro the project to its completion.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

Nothing can be fairer, or more noble, than the holy fervor of true zeal.

The scandal of the world is what makes the offence; it is not sinful to sin in silence.

There is no secret of the heart which our actions do not disclose.

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

We must take the good with the bad; For the good when it’s good, is so very good That the bad when it’s bad can’t be bad!

He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.

Perfect good sense shuns all extremity, content to couple wisdom with sobriety.

They would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism.

It’s an odd job, making decent people laugh.

Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

Well madam, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose? Boxing is my excuse. What’s yours?