I shall strive not to be guilty of adding any fuel to the flames of hatred and passion which, if continued to be fed, promise to burn up whatever is left by the war of decent human feeling in Europe.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of not exacerbating hatred and conflict, especially in a post-war context.
Eamon De Valera's quote serves as a poignant reminder of the destructive nature of hatred and passion, particularly in times of conflict. He advocates for a conscious effort to cultivate peace and understanding instead of allowing existing animosities to grow unchecked. The notion of 'adding fuel to the flames' suggests that even small actions or words can escalate tensions, further damaging the fragile human connections that remain after strife. This serves as a call for compassion and restraint in order to rebuild and heal society.
In practice
This quote can be shared during discussions on reconciliation after war.
We, of our time, have played our part in the perseverance, and we have pledged ourselves to the dead generations who have preserved intact for us this glorious heritage, that we, too, will strive to be faithful to the end, and pass on this tradition unblemished.
An independent Ireland would see its own independence in jeopardy the moment it saw the independence of Britain seriously threatened. Mutual self-interest would make the peoples of these two islands, if both independent, the closest possible allies in a moment of real national danger to either.
Any law that takes hold of a mans daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative are the laws which protect life.
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
This work, though it deals only with eating and drinking, which are regarded in the eyes of our supernaturalistic mock-culture as the lowest acts, is of the greatest philosophic significance and importance... How former philosophers have broken their heads over the question of the bond between body and soul! Now we know, on scientific grounds, what the masses know from long experience, that eating and drinking hold together body and soul, that the searched-for bond is nutrition.
Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds - that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
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