Jose Rizal Quotes - Page 2

To live is to be among men, and to be among men is to struggle, a struggle not only with them but with oneself; with their passions, but also with one's own.

Oh how beautiful to fall to give you flight, to die to give you life, to rest under your sky; and in your enchanted land forever sleep.

It is not the criminals who arouse the hatred of others, but the men who are honest.

Each one writes history according to his convenience.

I don't see why I should bow my head when I could hold it high, or place it in the hands of my enemies when I can defeat them.

What is death to me? I have sown the seeds others will reap.

It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.

The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others.

Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows – it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces.

For myself I think that one wrong does not right the other, and forgiveness cannot be won with useless tears or alms to the Church.

To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything.

I go where there are no slaves, hangmen or oppressors; where faith does not kill; where the one who reigns is God.

Who does not love his own tongue is far worse than a brute or stinking fish.

No one blames a pilot who takes refuge in port when the storm begins to blow. It is not cowardice to duck under a bullet; what is wrong is to defy it only to fall and never rise again.

While a people preserves its language; it preserves the marks of liberty.

I can concede that the government has no knowledge of the people, but I believe the people know less of the government. There are useless officials, evil, if you like, but there are also good ones, and these are not able to accomplish anything because they encounter an inert mass, the population that takes little part in matters that concern them.

Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.

Why independence? If the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow.

No one has a monopoly of the true God, nor is there a nation or religion that can claim, or at any rate prove, that it has been given the exclusive right to the Creator or sole knowledge of His Being.

Climate affects bipeds in the same way it does quadrupeds.

Cowardice rightly understood begins with selfishness and ends with shame.

Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.

Hold high the brow serene, O youth, where now you stand; Let the bright sheen Of your grace be seen, Fair hope of my fatherland!

I honor the father in his son, not the son in his father. Each one receives a reward or punishment for his deeds, but not for the acts of others.

Dying people don't need medicine, the ones who remain do.