John Philpot Curran Quotes

• It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become prey to the active. The conditions upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.

  John Philpot Curran

  Fate, Men, Rights

  Speech on the right of election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, 10 July 1790. Usually quoted as "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," which has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but no one has ever found this in his writings. Atkinson's Casket, Sept. 1833, has "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." See Andrew Jackson 5

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• Evil prospers when good men do nothing.

  John Philpot Curran

  Men, Evil, Good Man

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• I have never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a ghost.

  John Philpot Curran

  Criminal Mind, Ghost, Not Afraid

  Charles PHILLIPS (One of the Commissioners of the Insolvent Debtors'Court.), John Philpot CURRAN (Right Hon.) (1850). “Recollections of Curran, and some of his contemporaries ... Second edition”, p.245

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• Assassinate me you may; intimidate me you cannot.

  John Philpot Curran

  May, Intimidation, Intimidating

  Charles PHILLIPS (One of the Commissioners of the Insolvent Debtors'Court.), John Philpot CURRAN (Right Hon.) (1850). “Recollections of Curran, and some of his contemporaries ... Second edition”, p.377

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• But as in wailing there's nought availing, And Death unfailing will strike the blow, Then for that reason, and for a season, Let us be merry before we go.

  John Philpot Curran

  Blow, Reason, Wailing

  ?1773 'Let Us Be Merry Before We Go'.

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• His smile is like the silver plate on a coffin.

  John Philpot Curran

  Sarcastic, Coffins, Silver

  Of Sir Robert Peel's smile. Quoted by Daniel O'Connell in the House of Commons, 26 Feb 1835.

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• My dear doctor, I am surprised to hear you say that I am coughing very badly, as I have been practising all night.

  John Philpot Curran

  Night, Doctors, Dear God

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• To brand man with infamy, and let him free, is an absurdity that peoples our forests with assassins.

  John Philpot Curran

  Men, Liberty, Assassins

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• Madame de Stael talks herself into a beauty.

  John Philpot Curran

  Talking

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• When I can't talk sense, I talk metaphor.

  John Philpot Curran

  Metaphor, I Can

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• The first inventions of commerce are, like those of all other arts, cunning and short-sighted.

  John Philpot Curran

  Art, Firsts, Invention

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