Quote#Politics & Power
[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it…
Quote byWolfe Tone · 1763–1798
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Society of United Irishmen of Dublin to the people of Ireland (3 March 1793), quoted in T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds.), The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, Volume I: Tone's career in Ireland to June 1795 (1998), p. 415.
English (original)
[I]t is our principle that if a nation wills a bad government it ought to have that government. We have no power, and we have no right, to force men to be free.
— Wolfe Tone
More from Wolfe Tone
I for one will never be accessory to subjecting my country to the control of France merely to get rid of England.
Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men of property will not support us, they must fall; we can support ourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable class of the community, the men of no property.
[Charles de La Croix]...asked me did I know one Simon, a priest. I answered...that I had a strong objection to letting priests into the business at all; that I had the very worst opinion of them, and that in Ireland especially they were …
It is a fact undeniable though carefully concealed in England, that two thirds of the British navy are manned by Irishmen; a circumstance which if it stood alone should be sufficient to determine the French Government to wrest, if …
The Harpers again. Strum Strum and be hang'd!
I see the Orange boys are playing the Devil in Ireland. I have no doubt it is the work of the Government. Please God, if I get safe into that country, I will settle those gentlemen, and their instigators also, more especially.