Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

In free society art is not a weapon...Artists are not engineers of the soul.

First I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts.

What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart?

There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.