St. Patrick’s Day quotes might not be as common as quotes for other holidays, but they are essential to reminding others about this often-overlooked day of celebration. Whether you want St. Patrick’s Day quotes for a card, or maybe to use as your email signature, they are fun sayings to have on hand for the occasion.
What is St. Patrick’s Day?
St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th, and it is the celebration of the life of Saint Patrick, who died on March 17th, 461 CE. Traditionally observed by the Catholic religion, St. Patrick’s Day has also come to commemorate the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.
While the exact life of St. Patrick has not been verified, it was said he was born in Britain and was kidnapped when he was 16. The kidnappers took him to Ireland to become a slave.
After 6 years, God appeared to him and told him to run away. He did so, becoming a priest upon his return to Britain. He later returned to Ireland as an evangelist, and it is said he “drove the snakes out of Ireland.”
St. Patrick’s Day occurs during lent, but churches lift the restriction on alcohol during the celebration, which is why the holiday has come to be synonymous with binge drinking. Some Christians still attend church services on St. Patrick’s Day and go drinking afterward.
Why Do We Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
There are many Irish Catholics in America, which is how St. Patrick’s Day came to the country. The Catholics celebrate the holiday as a way of remembering a great prophet and saint.
Over the years, St. Patrick’s Day has changed to become a symbol of Irish Americans celebrating their heritage and is one of the main reasons the holiday is celebrated today. It’s important to note that St. Patrick’s Day is not traditionally celebrated in Ireland the same way it is in America.
Benefits of St. Patrick’s Day Quotes
While St. Patrick’s Day may not be as popular as other holidays, there are still many benefits to having some St. Patrick’s Day quotes on hand.
- Patrick’s Day Quotes can be included in kids’ crafts for the day.
- Adding a quote to a card can brighten someone’s day.
- It can be fun to change your email signature with different quotes for all the holidays.
- Those who are religious can use the quotes to remember this holiday.
80 Best St. Patrick’s Day Quotes
Inspirational St. Patrick’s Day Quotes
- “May your troubles be less, your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.”- Irish Blessing
- “Luck was a mechanism to be devised, and luck and destiny were merely two sides of the same coin.”—Idries Shah
- “A good friend is like a four-leaf clover — hard to find, lucky to have.” – Irish Proverb
- “May you get all of your wishes but one, so you’ll always have something to strive for.” – Irish Blessing
- “There are good ships and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships, and may they ever be.” – Irish Toast
- “Luck can only get you so far.” – J. K. Rowling
- “We are all a great deal luckier than we realize. We usually get what we want, or near enough.” – Roald Dahl
- “May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each day and night” – Irish Blessing
- “May your neighbors respect you, troubles neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.” – Irish Blessing
- “The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.” – Douglas McArthur
- “When it comes to luck, you make your own.” – Bruce Springsteen
- “Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it.”—Pope John Paul II
- “There’s the joy of ole’ Killarney, in these wishes meant for you; There’s a bit of Irish blarney, and a touch of magic too. There’s a wish of lots of laughter, and good luck, be sure o’ that; And a wish that all your dreams may come true in no time flat.”
- “Imagine if we were all magical leprechauns, and every wish ever made on a four-leaf clover obliged us to help others obtain their wishes. Now imagine if people simply lived like this were true.” —Richelle E. Goodrich
- “Ireland has always been the home of the dreamer, the poet and the storyteller.” —Jordan Richard
- “May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.”
St. Patrick’s Day Funny Quotes
- “Everyone’s Irish tonight.”
- “What’s the greenest holiday on the planet? St. Patrick’s Day!”
- “The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “I will tell you, my body immediately responds to being in Ireland because every single cell in my body says yes.” —Conan O’Brien
- “Do you think anybody knows that I’m Irish?” —Niall Horan
- “I was raised in a very old-fashioned Ireland where women were reared to be lovely.”—Anne Enright
- “I think being a woman is like being Irish… Everyone says you’re important and nice, but you take second place all the time.” —Iris Murdoch
- “Thankfully the rest of the world assumed that the Irish were crazy, a theory that the Irish themselves did nothing to debunk. They had somehow got it into their heads that each fairy lugged around a pot of gold with him wherever he went. While it was true that LEP had a ransom fund, because of its officers’ high-risk occupation, no human had ever taken a chunk of it yet. This didn’t stop the Irish population in general from skulking around rainbows, hoping to win the supernatural lottery.” —Eoin Colfer
- “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” —William Butler Yeats
- “You’ve got to think lucky. If you fall into a mudhole, check your back pocket—you might have caught a fish.”—Darrell Royal
- “Never iron a four-leaf clover because you don’t want to press your luck.”
- “The leprechauns made me do it.”
- “There are only two classes of people—the Irish and those who wish they were Irish.” —Therese Duffy
- “In Ireland, you go to someone’s house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you’re really just fine. She asks if you’re sure. You say of course you’re sure, really, you don’t need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don’t need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn’t mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it’s no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting. In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don’t get any damned tea. I liked the Irish way better.” —C.E. Murphy
- “Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.”—Ian Duncun Smith
- “If you’re Irish, it doesn’t matter where you go—you’ll find family.”—Victoria Smurfit
- “You’re not in America now, you’re in Ireland. So have a drink and shut up.”—Matthew Goode (Leap Year)
- “That’s right, there’s free beer in Irish paradise. Everyone’s jealous.”—Kevin Hearne
- “I’m Irish! When I feel well I feel better than anyone, when I am in pain I yell at the top of my lungs, and when I am dead I shall be deader than anybody.”—Morgan Llywelyn
- “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Roman Philosopher Seneca
- “You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it.”—Jimmy Dean
- “Leprechauns were once fierce warriors who protected the coast from marauders and defended the land. Then Christianity showed up and decided to do away with all that, and they downplayed the heroic actions of those warriors to the extent that we see them as the iconic little guys with pots of gold today. Nothing quite like a group of gossiping Christians to turn the tide on historical events, huh?” —Paula Millhouse
- “I have noticed that timing and luck sometimes line up in such a way that you can catch a break.”—Ellie Kemper
- “Don’t throw away luck on little stuff. Save it up.”—Tim O’Brien
- “Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me.”—Colin Farrell
Happy St. Patrick’s Day Quotes
- “Irish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day.”
- “Whether I drink often or just once in a while; I’m always sure to raise a glass to the dear old Emerald Isle.”—Pat Maloney
- “That’s what the holidays are for—for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn’t that the Irish way?”—Lara Flynn Boyle
- “For each petal on the shamrock, this brings a wish your way: Good health, good luck, and happiness for today and every day.”—Irish Blessing
- “Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy.” —Fiona Shaw
- “Be sure to wear green on March seventeen, or else Irish leprechauns pinch your bones clean!” —Richelle E. Goodrich
- “May your blessings outweigh the number of shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.” – Irish Blessing
Quotes About St. Patrick’s Day
- “May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of St. Patrick behold you.” – Irish Blessing
- “St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time. It’s a day to begin transforming Winter’s dreams into Summer’s magic.” – Adrienne Cook
- “May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.”
- “Be still and know that I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be.”—St. Patrick
- “Yeah, it’s St. Paddy’s Day. Everyone’s Irish tonight.”—Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints)
- “St. Patrick’s Day is a day to celebrate our green heritage. The ancestry of Ireland. It is a day to celebrate what it means to be Irish and of Irish descent.”—Anthony T. Hicks
- “We may have bad weather in Ireland, but the sun shines in the hearts of the people and that keeps us all warm.”—Marianne Williamson
- “Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but if your name is Eisenhower, you’ve got to wear something green to show it.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “The list of Irish saints is past counting; but in it all no other figure is so human, friendly, and lovable as St. Patrick.”—Stephen Gwynn
- “There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.”—John Millington Synge
- “Whether it’s St. Patrick’s Day or not, everyone has a little luck o’ the Irish in them.” —Laura Sommers
- “St. Paddy’s Day is our celebration day for Ireland’s favorite saint who both saved us from the snakes, and gave us our own day to celebrate our Irish heritage.” —Paddy O’Furniture
- “Saint Patrick was a gentleman, who through strategy and stealth, drove all the snakes from Ireland, here’s a toast to his health. But not too many toasts, lest you lose yourself and then forget the good Saint Patrick and see all those snakes again.”
- “Here is the enigma of Patrick: he looms large on the imaginative horizon of so many people, yet he saw himself as a Christian bishop from the embattled edge of a crumbling empire.” —Thomas O’Loughlin
- “The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad / For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.” —G.K. Chesterton
- “That’s what the prom is—St. Patrick’s Day for the young.” —Tim Tharp
- “On St. Patrick’s Day, the traditional Irish family would rise early and find a solitary sprig of shamrock to put on their somber Sunday best. Then they’d spend the morning in church listening to sermons about how thankful they should be that St. Patrick saved such a bunch of ungrateful sinners. Nobody wore green clothing as it was considered an unlucky color not suitable for church.” —Rashers Tierney
- “You don’t believe in magic spells or longings coming true. Yet, head-to-toe you dress in green on Patty’s Day, you do.” —Richelle E. Goodrich
- “Few Americans have heard of Wales. All of them have heard of Ireland and many of them think they are Irish.” —Peter Hitchens
Short St. Patrick’s Day Quotes
- “You’re my lucky charm.”
- “Bless your little Irish heart and every other Irish part.”
- “Luck o’ the Irish.”
- “Ireland is a land of poets and legends, of dreamers and rebels.”—Nora Roberts
- “May every petal on the shamrock bring you joy and good luck.”
- “Wishing you a pot of gold this St. Patrick’s Day.”
- “Lucky like a four-leaf clover.”
- “For the whole world is Irish on the seventeenth o’ March!”—Thomas Augustine Daly
- “May your clovers have leaves of four and your luck last forevermore.”
- “You’re as rare and as lucky as a four-leaf clover.”
- “Eat, drink, and be Irish.”
- “May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.”—Irish Blessing
- “Here’s to good Irish friends—never above you, never below you, always beside you.”