José Rizal Quotes

44 Sourced Quotes

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

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

José Rizal
One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again.

José Rizal
To the questioning glance of love, as it flashes out and then conceals itself, speech has no reply; the smile, the kiss, the sigh answer.

José Rizal
The Philippines should be grateful to you if you would write a complete history of our country from an impartial point of view.. But don't expect thanks and laurels—crowns of flowers and laurels are the inventions of free people. But perhaps your children may gather the fruit of what the father planted.

José Rizal
Friar! What a strange name. I don't remember having created such a thing! (God speaking to the angel Gabriel)

José Rizal
Your enemies hate you more than they hate your ideas. Should you want a project to be undone propose it. Even if it were as useful as a bishop's mire it would be rejected. Once you are defeated let the humblest-looking among you sponsor it and your enemies to humble you will approve it.

José Rizal
I have observed that the prosperity or misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its prejudices and, accordingly, to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers. -Juan Crisostomo Ibarra

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

José Rizal
Death has always been the first sign of European civilization when introduced in the Pacific.

José Rizal
God has made man a cosmopolite. He created seas for ships to glide on, the wind to push them, and the stars to guide them even in darkest night.

José Rizal
It breaks immortality's neck
Contemplates crime and therefore halts it;
It humbles barbarous nations
And makes of savages, champions.

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

José Rizal
I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which each religion claims to possess... but in the living revelation which surrounds us on every side — mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die.

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

José Rizal
Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like the light, the air. It is the heritage of all.

José Rizal
Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction.

José Rizal
Each one writes history according to his convenience.

José Rizal
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.

José Rizal
We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do so, because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down.

José Rizal
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.

José Rizal
Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice.

José Rizal
How long have you been away from the country?" Laruja asked Ibarra. "Almost seven years." "Then you have probably forgotten all about it." "Quite the contrary. Even if my country does seem to have forgotten me, I have always thought about it.

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

José Rizal
The Filipino loves his country no less than the Spaniard does his, and although he is quieter, more peaceful and with more difficulty stirred up, once aroused he does not hesitate and for him the struggle means death to the finish. He has both the meekness and ferocity of the carabao. Climate affects bipeds in the same way it does quadrupeds.

José Rizal