WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Thu, 11 Jun 2026 19:27:37 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg Curran, John Philpot – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Curran, John Philpot -- Defense of Rebels (1798) https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/410/ https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/410/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=410 Assassinate me you may; intimidate me you cannot.


John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Defense of Rebels (1798) ]]> https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/410/feed/ 0 410 Curran, John Philpot -- Speech before Privy Council, Dublin (1790-07-10) https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/411/ https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/411/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=411 It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.


John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Speech before Privy Council, Dublin (1790-07-10)
    (Source)

On the right of election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Commonly paraphrases:

  • "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
  • "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
More discussion (especially regarding attribution to Thomas Jefferson): Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty (Spurious Quotation) | Monticello. ]]> https://wist.info/curran-john-philpot/411/feed/ 2 411