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.
My advanced age has taught me the resignation of being Borges.
My skin is kind of sort of brownish pinkish yellowish white. My eyes are greyish blueish green, but I'm told they look orange in the night. My hair is reddish blondish brown, but its silver when its wet, and all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.
Open-minded people tend to be interested in Buddhism because Buddha urged people to investigate things - he didn't just command them to believe.
The newspaper stories were like dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How awful, we would say, and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic, they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives. We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.
Human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit.
The satisfaction derived from the fleeting things of life is not lasting; and our wants remain unfulfilled. There is thus a general sense of dissatisfaction accompanied by all kinds of worries.
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