Irish Quotes

Here are over 300 Irish quotes, toasts, blessings, proverbs, and assorted other quotations about Ireland and the Irish people. For more history, see Irish History.

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time -- a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.

An Irishman is the only man in the world who will step over the bodies of a dozen naked women to get to a bottle of stout.

Anonymous

For the young Gaels of Ireland
Are the lads that drive me mad,
For half their words need footnotes
And half their rhymes are bad.

An Irishman can be worried by the consciousness that there is nothing to worry about.

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.

I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society,
except that which makes to road safer, the beer stronger,
the old men and women warmer in the winter, and happier in the summer.

Ireland is where strange tales begin
and happy endings are possible.

Irishness is not primarily a question of birth or blood or language; it is the condition of being involved in the Irish situation, and usually of being mauled by it.

For an Irishman, talking is a dance.

Like an Irishman's obligation, all on the one side, and always yours.

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.

An Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination.

My one claim to originality among Irishmen is that I have never made a speech.

When Irish eyes are smiling, watch your step.

The Irish do not want anyone to wish them well; they want everyone to wish their enemies ill.

More on Ireland & the Irish

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