Jose Rizal famous quotes

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

#Opportunity #Doe #Lost

I wish to show those who deny us Patriotism that we know how to die for our country and convictions.
-- Jose Rizal

#Country #Wish #Conviction

He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.
-- Jose Rizal

#Doe #Looks #Destination

The youth is the hope of our future.
-- Jose Rizal

#Youth #Our Future

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

#Children #Struggle #Sacrifice

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Struggle #Passion #Men

No good water comes from a muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed.
-- Jose Rizal

#Sweet #Spring #Water

On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.
-- Jose Rizal

#Heart #Men #Weapons

He who would love much has also much to suffer.
-- Jose Rizal

#Suffering

I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him.
-- Jose Rizal

#Country #Sacrifice #People

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Fall #Blow #Ducks

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

#Cowardice #Tyranny

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

#Passion #Childhood #Age

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

#Country #Saving #Ruins

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Useless #Stones #Fields

To be happy does not mean to indulge in foolishness!
-- Jose Rizal

#Mean #Doe #Indulge

Virtue lies in the middle ground.
-- Jose Rizal

#Lying #Virtue #Middle

The appetite is sharpened by the first bites.
-- Jose Rizal

#Food #Firsts #Appetite

He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish.
-- Jose Rizal

#Love #Animal #Fish Tanks

There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.
-- Jose Rizal

#Tyrants #Slave

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Claims #Monopoly #Given

Each one writes history according to his convenience.
-- Jose Rizal

#Writing #Convenience

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

#Tyrants #Independence #Today

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

#People #Liberty #Language

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

#Country #Light #Air

Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter.
-- Jose Rizal

#Ignorance #Men #Thinking

If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts, they can rest assured that neither England, nor Germany, nor France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what Spain has been unable to hold.
-- Jose Rizal

#Independence #Spain #Germany

When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement!
-- Jose Rizal

#People #Mobility #Movement

I do not write for this generation. I am writing for other ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books, the work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which interprets these writings will be an educated generation; they will understand me and say: Not all were asleep in the nighttime of our grandparents.
-- Jose Rizal

#Book #Writing #Hands

Our liberty will not be secured at the sword's point... We must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when the people reaches that height, God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards, and liberty will shine out like the first dawn.
-- Jose Rizal

#Idols #People #House

I have to believe much in God because I have lost my faith in man.
-- Jose Rizal

#Believe #Men #Lost

Cowardice rightly understood begins with selfishness and ends with shame.
-- Jose Rizal

#Selfishness #Shame #Cowardice

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

#Powerful #World #Divinity

But because their ancestors were men of righteousness, shall we consent to the abuses of their degenerate descendants? Because they did us a great good, would we be guilty if we prevented them from doing us evil?
-- Jose Rizal

#Men #Evil #Abuse

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Thinking #Tears #Church

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Hands #Enemy #Bows

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!
-- Jose Rizal

#Grace #Youth #Serene

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

#Doubt #Would Be #Conscience

Friar! What a strange name. I don't remember having created such a thing!
-- Jose Rizal

#Names #Strange #Remember

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

#Medicine #People #Dying

It is enough for the evil people to succeed, for the good people to do nothing.
-- Jose Rizal

#Loyalty #People #Evil

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Country #Years #Long

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

#Men #Hatred #Criminals

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Believe #Government #Evil

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Hate #Humble #Ideas

The people do not complain because they have no voice; do not move because they are lethargic, and you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen their hearts bleed.
-- Jose Rizal

#Moving #Heart #Voice

Let us not ask for miracles, let us not ask for concern with what is good for the country of him who comes as a stranger to make his fortune and leave afterwards.
-- Jose Rizal

#Country #Miracle #Stranger

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

#Men #Inaction

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

#Men #Numbers #Language

The example could encourage others who only fear to start.
-- Jose Rizal

#Example

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Beautiful #Fall #Sleep

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

#Doe #Reign #Slave

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Father #Son #Punishment

In the Middle Ages, everything bad was the work of the devil, everything good, the work of God. Today, the French see everything in reverse and blame the Germans for it.
-- Jose Rizal

#Age #Devil #Today

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

#Civilization #Firsts

I die without seeing dawn's light shining on my country... You, who will see it, welcome it for me...don't forget those who fell during the nighttime.
-- Jose Rizal

#Country #Light #Shining

A God who chastises our lack of faith, our vices, the little esteem in which we hold dignity and the civic virtues. We tolerate vice, we make ourselves its accomplices, at times we applaud it, and it is just, very just that we suffer the consequences, that our children suffer them. It is the God of liberty ... who obliges us to love it, by making the yoke heavy for us - a God of mercy, of equity, who while He chastises us betters us and only grants prosperity to him who has merited it through his efforts. The school of suffering tempers, the arena of combat strengthens the soul.
-- Jose Rizal

#Children #School #Effort

To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open a book that tells of her past.
-- Jose Rizal

#Book #Past #Destiny

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

#Death #Reap

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Kissing #Answers #Speech

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
-- Jose Rizal

#Sacrifice #People #Liberty

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Stars #Night #Men

Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.
-- Jose Rizal

#Tomorrow #Rebellion #Innocent

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.
-- Jose Rizal

#Eye #Elephants #Ivory

The world laughs at another man's pain.
-- Jose Rizal

#Pain #Men #Laughing