Michael Collins Quotes

Truth has very few friends and those few are suicides.

Now, indeed, are the men of Ireland cowards if this moment for retribution, combat and victory, was to pass by unemployed. It finds them slaves, and it would leave them infamous.

Tom Clarke is dead. He has not our responsibilities. Nobody will ever know what he would do for the situation did not arise for him. But is has risen for us and we must face it with our intelligence and conscious of our responsibility.

I have nothing more to offer than what General Washington would have had to offer, had he been taken by the British and put to trial by them. I have adventured my life in endeavoring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and am willing to sacrifice to their cause.

There is no field of activity for great men without the coming of great wars, great struggles and great revolutions.

Talk not to me of peace. Ireland is not at peace, it is smothered war. England has sown her laws as dragon's teeth, and they have sprung up as armed men.

The rising is no ways intended against our Sovereign Lord the King, nor the hurt of any of his subjects, either of the English or Scottish nation, but only for the defense and liberty of ourselves and the Irish natives of this Kingdom.

God save Ireland, said the heroes God save Ireland said they all. Whether on the scaffold high, Or the battle field we die O’ what matter when for Ireland dear we fall.

The political hero is not like the sports champion or matinee idol or daring inventor; like the war hero, he is born only of tragedy.

Without the rebellious heart, without people who understand that there's no sacrifice we can make that is too great to retrieve that which we've lost, we will forever be distracted with possessions and trinkets and title.

If the UFC doesn't like what I'm doing, it is what it is.

Give Ireland back to the Irish, don't make them have to take it away.

The British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland.

I would sacrifice peace in order to win sovereignty for Bosnia, but for that peace in Bosnia, I would not sacrifice sovereignty.

The experience of being in the Army changed my whole life; I never believed that an organization such as ours could ever go to war, leave alone win it. It was, as Yeats remarked of the Easter Rising, 'A terrible beauty.'

We are going to use the truth, and we are going to use it toward the end of winning the war; and we know what would happen to the American people if we lose it.

I will climb the gallows gladly and show to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the cause.

My story is a freedom song of struggle. It is about finding one's purpose, how to overcome fear and to stand up for causes bigger than one's self.

I am proud of my service and proud of those who served alongside me. But war is about more than service and sacrifice - it's about winning.

It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.

The war against British rule must continue until freedom is achieved.

When you're at war you do what it takes to win.

The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter.

To be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom.

These guys that were standing up to fight, for the most part, had pride in their country, and they wanted to do the best, and they wanted to go out and fight, and I was as close to these Afghans as I was to the Marines.