Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
2034
AUTHOR:
John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–90)
QUOTATION:
The world is large, when its weary leagues two loving hearts divide;But the world is small, when your enemy is loose on the other side.
ATTRIBUTION:
JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY, “Distance,” Watchwords from John Boyle O’Reilly, ed. Katherine E. Conway, p. 16 (1892).
These lines were quoted by Senator John F. Kennedy in a speech at the Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York City, October 19, 1960, and, as president, to the Irish Parliament, Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963.
