Heads Of State

"When Khomeini talked about capitalism and the impunity of American advisors, he explained these things in a way that his audience understood. He made his followers understand that his movement was truly an Iranian movement. Therefore, the Pahlavi regime and America's entire apparatus of power realized that Imam Khomeini's leadership and his revolutionary movement represented a struggle against global domination."

"Without safeguarding social justice, our society will not be an Islamic society. Social justice means eradication of major gaps between different social classes, between the unjustified wealth of the affluent and the poor who have always been the most loyal defenders of the revolution."

"The global arrogant powers make the Islamic Revolution sound like a Shi'ite revolution. They make every effort to stop the Muslim world from calling the Islamic Republic of Iran's revolution, a revolution in the name of Islam, and Iran's government, an Islamic Republic. Iran does not distinguish between Shi'ites and Sunnis, but sees all Muslims as one, under the same banner of Islam."

"It is because of Islam that we are firmly standing against oppression. The world of oppression is ruled by America as the leader of a system that works to realize its interests. There is no other issue between America and Islamic Iran other than Islam. We are fighting for humankind. We have proven that Islam can save humanity. Islam is able to confront the world powers and disrupt their ruthless world order."

"If we want the revolution to continue with the same speed, steadfastness, and in the path of Islam without wavering to the left or to the right, we have to set the goals of our nation and also of the Islamic nations around us. We have to make efforts to bring these goals to fruition and not stop trying. The greatest danger is not that we become tired or exhausted, but that we lose sight of the revolutionary goals and ideals."

"From the very beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, global arrogant powers realized that if Muslim unity is attained, the attention of Muslims will turn to the Command Center of Muslim Unity, Iran. Reactionary governments and those affiliated with domination have spent a lot of money to provoke conflict among Muslims, including Arab nations, those who speak Urdu, and even within the Iranian Muslim nation."

"Do not let go of your hatred for the enemy. When animosity and hatred toward the enemy decreases in your hearts, it is a dangerous sign. That means your faith is diminishing. Everyone, young and old, must maintain their hate and abhorrence for the enemy in their hearts."

"Cutting relations with America is one hundred percent to the advantage of Iranians. It is a deceitful misrepresentation to say that nations who have good relations with the U.S. have no economic or financial problems. If the Iranian nation wishes to turn its economic and financial standing around, which it will certainly do, all it needs is a strong will, decisiveness, and cooperation among the different sectors of society. It also needs to avoid being impacted by Western media and the West’s propaganda machines. These measures and values will build the nation, not relations with America."

"We have been delivered from the Shah's regime that was one hundred percent dependent upon the West. We became victims of aggression because of his policies that produced dependency. Henceforth, we have no desire for dependency upon the powers from either side. … Internally, today all Iranians know that the Islamic Republic has a strict policy of "Neither East, Nor West." … Externally, Iran has spread this policy to other nations, specifically to smaller third-world countries and independent non-third-world countries, who feel they have no choice but to rely on the two superpowers. … As long as a nation is not under the influence of, or subjected to, the power of the East, West, or the Soviet Union, our goal has been accomplished."

"We created an Islamic government in one of the most strategic locations in the world: Iran connects the East and the West. Now the only thing left is our battle against false propaganda that attempts to cloud the image of this revolution. … They present our republic as a reactionary and cruel regime. They do not hesitate to use superficial Muslims and scholars to accomplish their goals. The response of the Islamic Republic is to show its innocence to the world—to show that it is progressive and not reactionary, seeks justice and advocates justice, and is not oppressive and cruel."

"Imam Khomeini explained on numerous occasions that exporting the revolution is the culture of the revolution and the true spirit of the revolution. That Cultural Revolution recognizes no borders, no color, and no race. No wall or gate can stand in its way or prevent its progress. … The difference with Iran's Islamic Revolution is that it influences without the slightest interference in the domestic affairs of other countries. Iran's exporting of its revolution is not by a military threat, but a cultural influence."

"Freedom in Islam is freedom from slavery, servitude, and domination. It calls upon ascribing value to human will. Those who believe that the concept of freedom, in this sense, has existed in the world only for the past two or three centuries are wrong. The concept of the freedom of human beings was discussed in Islam centuries prior to Europe's formulations of freedom as a universal right of humanity, and centuries prior to debates among European scholars, intellectuals, revolutionaries, and political leaders."

"If we define freedom in its true and broad meaning based on the Divine Scriptures, it is the freedom of the human spirit from corruption, lust, temptations, whims, and material bondage. This definition has not been discussed in Western or European books. The freedom that was discussed during the great French Revolution in the late 18th century and later debated in the Western world is less valuable and more limited than the freedom discussed by the Divine Prophets and Scriptures."

"What Iraq has done is treacherous and disloyal toward not only Iran, but the entire Muslim world, simply by subjecting themselves to the temptations of colonizers."

"Who are the enemies of Islam? All the bullying oil customers. Oil for them is an existential matter. If they do not have oil, their homes will freeze and their air and ground transportation will stop. This is the only reason the enemy tries to create conflict among Muslims, for they know this reality. The globally hegemonic powers know and see that if this enormous Muslim world comes together in unity and creates a superpower—economically, politically, and militarily—none of the existing military powers could stand against such a force."

"We have no intentions of domination or becoming a superpower in the common and ordinary sense. Our fundamental goal is that the oppressed in the world are able to find the power to decide their own faith. The oppressed people should not be indifferent about this. Instead, we seek amicable relations. When we say peaceful relations, we do not mean relations with every nation. Exceptions include the racist South Africa and the Zionist regime of Israel. They are illegitimate regimes. The nature of these two regimes and their existence is illegal. The other exception is the United States."

"Western democracy is based on liberalism. Freedom exists but has no limits, even if it is against the rights and freedoms of the rest of their society. … The West desires one thing from liberalism, and that is its own absolute freedom to do whatever it desires within the global community and to occupy any part of the world."

"The Islamic Republic still has a long way to go to achieve the social justice mandated by Islam. We still have not reached that stage and have a long way to go to get there."

"The arrogant powers intend to turn our nation into a third-world country and return it to its pre-revolutionary state."

"All the papers in Europe and America belong to the capitalists. The newspapers enjoy freedom, but it is the freedom of capitalists to push through their agenda. … If someone does not belong to this circle of capitalists, their views and opinions will not be published or made known. No one will hear them. … They claim newspapers are free in America and Britain. I ask, which newspaper belongs to the middle or lower classes of the society so that they could freely express their views, and we could witness such freedoms?"

"No matter what the future may hold for the Irish nation, the seven years — 1916 to 1923 — must ever remain a period of absorbing interest. Not for over two hundred years has there been such a period of intense and sustained effort to regain the national sovereignty and independence. Over the greater part of the period it was the effort of, one might say, the entire nation. An overwhelming majority of the people of this island combined voluntarily during those years in pursuit of a common purpose."

"In this day, if Ireland is faithful to her mission, and, please God, she will be, if as of old she recalls men to forgotten truths, if she places before them the ideals of justice, of order, of freedom rightly used, of Christian brotherhood—then, indeed, she can do the world a service as great as that which she rendered in the time of Columcille and Columbanus, because the need of our time is in no wise less."

"The Irish genius has always stressed spiritual and intellectual rather than material values."

"Ireland's music is of a singular beauty. Based on pentatonic scale its melodies reach back to a period anterior to the dawn of musical history. It stands pre-eminent amongst the music of the Celtic nations. It is characterised by perfection of form and variety of melodic content. It is particularly rich in tunes that imply exquisite sensitiveness. The strange fitfulness of the lamentations and love songs, the transition from gladness to pathos, have thrilled the experts, and made them proclaim our music the most varied and the most poetical in the world. Equal in rhythmic variety are our dance tunes—spirited and energetic in keeping with the temperament of our people."

"Ireland has produced in Dean Swift perhaps the greatest satirist in the English language; in Edmund Burke probably the greatest writer on politics; in William Carleton a novelist of the first rank; in Oliver Goldsmith a poet of rare merit. Henry Grattan was one of the most eloquent orators of his time—the golden age of oratory in the English language. Theobald Wolfe Tone has left us one of the most delightful autobiographies in literature. Several recent or still living Irish novelists and poets have produced work which is likely to stand the test of time."

"Next to her services to religion, Ireland's greatest contribution to the welfare of humanity has been the example of devotion to freedom which she has given throughout seven hundred years."

"When Christianity was brought to her shores it was received with a joy and eagerness, and held with a tenacity of which there is hardly such another example."

"It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins and it will be recorded at my expense."

"The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland - happy, vigorous, spiritual - that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved. One hundred years ago, the Young Irelanders, by holding up the vision of such an Ireland before the people, inspired and moved them spiritually as our people had hardly been moved since the Golden Age of Irish civilisation. Fifty years later, the founders of the Gaelic League similarly inspired and moved the people of their day. So, later, did the leaders of the Irish Volunteers. We of this time, if we have the will and active enthusiasm, have the opportunity to inspire and move our generation in like manner. We can do so by keeping this thought of a noble future for our country constantly before our eyes, ever seeking in action to bring that future into being, and ever remembering that it is for our nation as a whole that future must be sought."

"Mr. de Valera did stand up to the Church, where he thought the Church was wrong—about the Irish Republic. But on issues like divorce, contraception, obscene literature, there was no question of standing up to the Church because Mr. de Valera—a good Catholic, in the traditional sense, from rural Ireland—agreed with the Church on such matters."

"It must be clear to you, Mr. President, from the reception you received everywhere, the deep affection with which you are held here in America--your second home. You are at once a legend and a warm friend. Your public career encompasses the history of modern Ireland to such an extent that you are not only its leading representative; you are also its personification, with all the pride, charm, courage and understanding that are associated with Ireland and its people. Under your wise leadership, Ireland not only regained her freedom and independence; it has become a distinguished member of the community of nations, dedicated to the causes of independence, freedom and peace."

"De Valera paused before replying to the suggestion. It had been his Karma to live a long and distinguished public life. Although he was then in his eighty-fifth year he was looking forward to a second seven-year term as President of Ireland. But he knew that before the bar of history his name and fame were inextricably linked with a man whose allotted span had been destined to be but a third of his own. He knew that the story of Eamon de Valera could not be told without that of Michael Collins. Already he had embarked on what he knew in his heart was a futile effort to influence the record for the benefit of posterity. His newspaper and political empires had published innumerable favourable articles, histories and recollections. And in the years ahead he planned to ensure that much more favourable comment and chronology would be collated and set down. He had fashioned a vigorous dialectic of de Valerism that would bulwark him against critical re-appraisal long into the future. But de Valera was a realist, a man whose doodlings on the back of documents took the form of mathematical symbols. He realised only too well that his party, his newspapers, his Constitution even, had grown out of his opposition to Michael Collins and the resultant civil war. He knew that eventually, in the truthful telling of history, two and two would make four. Torn between his own clarity of vision and the myths he had spun around himself, de Valera struggled painfully for words to express himself. Then he said, "I can't see my way to becoming Patron of the Michael Collins Foundation. It's my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense." He could be right."

"How could one argue with a man who was always drawing lines and circles to explain the position; who, one day, drew a diagram [here Michael illustrated with pen and paper] saying 'take a point A, draw a straight line to point B, now three-fourths of the way up the line take a point C. The straight line AB is the road to the Republic; C is where we have got to along the road, we cannot move any further along the straight road to our goal B; take a point out there, D [off the line AB]. Now if we bend the line a bit from C to D then we can bend it a little further, to another point E and if we can bend it to CE that will get us around Cathal Brugha which is what we want!' How could you talk to a man like that?"

"A Dhomhnall, I have to tell you, you are abolished."

"All history is man's efforts to realise ideals."

"I am against this Treaty not because I am a man of war but because I am a man of peace. I am against this Treaty because it will not end the centuries of conflict between the two nations of Great Britain and Ireland."

"Partition is after all only an old fortress of crumbled masonry — held together with the plaster of fiction."

"England pretends it is not by the naked sword, but by the good will of the people of the country that she is here. We will draw the naked sword to make her bare her own naked sword."

"Ministers not responsible to parliament — that would never do. Besides, I wanted to prepare a nice quiet job without too much work for my old age. Still, I admit, I was tempted. Look at the way de Gaulle rules France … absolute rule … very efficient."

"Of course I wrote most of the Constitution myself. I remember hesitating for a long time over the US presidential system. But it wouldn't have done — we were too trained in English democracy to sit down under a dictatorship which is what the American system really is."

"For Irishmen, there is no football game to match rugby and if all our young men played rugby not only would we beat England and Wales but France and the whole lot of them put together."

"Nature never intended me to be a partisan leader … Every instinct of mine would indicate that I was meant to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, or even a bishop, rather than the leader of a revolution."

"Following the 2000 coup, this august house did not agree to forgive the perpetrators but you decided that justice will take its course. You are confronted with a similar decision now. The military humbly requests that you display the same wisdom then to protect our land now."

"Who's promoting the Bill? These are people in the current Government who participated in the 2000 coup. Some have been convicted, others are facing trial, there are still others left whom the long arm of the law should get at."

"The military stand is that reconciliation is only possible after justice is served."

"Why should only a few people be freed and not others when we are all serving under the same law?"

"The Bill will legitimise the 2000 coup and will weaken the law and order agencies. All the good work of rebuilding Fiji to what it is today will be undone. The freeing of anyone (even if their crimes are politically-motivated) will show to the world that we are a nation that condones law breakers. It also means that we support terrorists as the Police Commissioner has commented."

"This Bill is not about crime committed within one group of people but involves many races living in Fiji. Therefore we can not apply one law onto another. We need to protect the whole population; the different faiths; cultures and traditions."

""Our Fiji today is a new Fiji where individual freedom is protected and not a Fiji solely for Fijians. Wise decisions from this august house will promote multiracial harmony and true friendship."

"Coups will be taken lightly if we condone this Bill, without justice there is no peace. If you honourable chiefs agree that those involved in the coup be forgiven, it will prove that we support the wrong and will be at odds with the integrity of God."