José Rizal Quotes

44 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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
The sea, the sea is everything! Its sovereign mass
brings to me atoms of a myriad faraway lands;
Its bright smile animates me in the limpid mornings
And when at the end of day my faith has failed me
My heart echoes the sound of its sorrow in the sands.

José Rizal
It was a world which granted privileges to some and imposed prohibitions on others... Endowed with strength and eager to learn, one had to drag himself in a narrow prison cell when he could see an open field, a vast horizon in the distance; when he could feel the beatings of a heart; and when he believed himself entitled to enjoy the beauty of a dream.

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

José Rizal
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.

José Rizal
No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light.

José Rizal
Today is Christmas Eve. Whether or not Christ was born exactly on this date is not important. But chronological accuracy has nothing to do with tonight's event. A grand genius had been born who preached truth and love; who suffered because of his mission; and on account of his sufferings the world has become better, if not saved. Only it gives me nausea to see how some people abuse his name to commit numerous crimes. If he is in heaven, he will certainly protest!

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

José Rizal
Each one writes history according to his convenience.

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

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

José Rizal
She was white, perhaps too white. Her eyes, which were almost always cast down, when she raised them testified to the purest of souls, and when she smiled, revealing her small, white teeth, one might be tempted to say that a rose is merely a plant, and ivory just an elephant's tusk.

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 glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin.

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

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

José Rizal
Muse who in the past inspired me to sing of the throes of love:
Go and repose.
What I need is a sword, rivers of gold,
and acrid prose.

José Rizal
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.

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

José Rizal
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.

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