Ned Kelly

"If they were in my position they would not smile much."

"Although I have been bushranging I have always believed that when I die I have a God to meet."

"Keep your freedom. It's the best thing you have. Never become a bushranger unless you are absolutely forced to it."

"Oh, what a pretty garden."

"Such is life."

"Everyone looks on me like a black snake."

"I told [Kelly] that [Sergeant Kennedy and Constable Scanlon] were both countrymen and co-religionists of his own. ... This statement ... was not strictly true, for Kelly was Australian born, but his father came from Tipperary and his mother from Armagh, and I thought he might be possessed of some of that patriotic-religious feeling which is such a bond of sympathy amongst the Irish people. My opinion is that he possessed none of this feeling. On the question of religion I believe he was apathetic, and like a great many young bushmen he prided himself more on his Australian birth than he did upon his extraction from any particular race. A favourite expression of his was: "I will let them see what one native [native-born Australian] can do.""

"I was a school kid at Jerilderie when Ned Kelly and his gang took possession of the township ... Like all the other youngsters in the place, I was keen to get a glimpse of the famous outlaw. ... I saw him come out of [the hotel] and squat on the verandah's edge to have a smoke. He beckoned me over, asked me my name and so forth―and then he gave me a short lecture. I can assure you, a Sunday school superintendent couldn't have given me sounder advice as to human conduct. ... He gave me a shilling, I ought to have kept it."

"Without doubt [Kelly] is the man who concocts all the plans and makes the others carry out his wishes. He appears to have the powers of a commander. His looks even infuse terror into his comrades. ... When he is in a rage and disappointed, he looks like a demon. He can also be very civil and courteous when he likes. This was proved when he was speaking to females. All the women he spoke to he treated very courteously, and spoke to them kindly. Ned Kelly treated the Rev. Mr. Gribble with kindness; conversed with him in a reasonable manner, so much so that the rev. gentleman was not at all afraid of him."

"He had a rare type of eyes—'alexandrite' eyes that sometimes glowed a startling crimson when he became excited."

"Ned Kelly was descended on both sides from bad stock—his father was an ex-convict and present cattle-stealer. When Ned was born at Beveridge, near Kilmore, Dean O'Hea, of Coburg, sent word that the child must be baptised. [Kelly's father] swore a great oath that no clergyman should come near his place. Dean O'Hea, when he heard this, resolved that the child should be baptised. So he rode one Sunday up the Sydney-road to Beveridge, stopped at Kelly's house, and said, "You have got a child to baptise; bring him out to me immediately." The rite was performed. When, years afterwards, Dean O'Hea told the matured Ned Kelly, then awaiting execution, of the incident, the bushranger "cried like a child.""

"In California this man ... would have been dragged out of gaol and lynched. I don't admire the mob for superseding the law, but the spirit in which it is done there contrasts strangely with the exaltation here of Kelly as a hero."

"The juvenile highwayman and companion of the notorious Power, on being brought before the Benalla bench, ... seemed quite indifferent to the danger of his position. While casting his eyes occasionally amongst the crowd, he smiled complacently and assumed a jaunty air. ... While confined in the lockup, he sang "like a bird," and appeared proud of his position. The misguided youth evidently considers himself a character to be admired."

"My mother, with an infant baby, and brother-in-law and another neighbour, were taken for aiding and abetting and attempting to murder [Fitzpatrick], a charge for which they are as purely innocent as the child unborn."