Douglas Hyde Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

As our language wanes and dies, the golden legends of the far-off centuries fade and pass away. No one sees their influence upon culture; no one sees their educational power.

Douglas Hyde
The devouring demon of Anglicization in Ireland…with its foul jaws has devoured, one after another, everything that was hereditary, national, instructive, ancient, intellectual and noble in our race, our language, our music, our songs, our industries, our dances, and our pastimes—I know, I say, that you will plant your feet firmly, and say with us, 'Back, Demon, back!'
On behalf of the Gaelic League in America

Douglas Hyde
The Gaelic League is founded not upon hatred of England, but upon love of Ireland. Hatred is a negative passion; it is powerful - a very powerful destroyer; but it is useless for building up. Love, on the other hand, is like faith; it can move mountains, and faith, we have mountains to move.

Douglas Hyde
I do not share the wish to see my language dead and decently buried

Douglas Hyde
Youth is a period of idealism. The Communists attract young people by appealing directly to that idealism. Too often, others have failed either to appeal to it or to use it and they are the losers as a consequence. We have no cause to complain if, having neglected the idealism of youth, we see others come along, take it, and harness it to their cause - and against our own.

Douglas Hyde
I - and there are hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who felt on this subject as I do - have always liked my Celtic countrymen and disliked the English nation; it is a national trait of character, and I cannot help it.

Douglas Hyde
If we allow one of the finest and the richest languages in Europe, which, fifty years ago, was spoken by nearly four million Irishmen, to die out without a struggle, it will be an everlasting disgrace, and a blighting stigma upon our nationality.

Douglas Hyde