José Martí quotes - page 2

All is beautiful and unceasing, all is music and reason, and all, like diamond, is carbon first, then light. (José Martí)
People can only be free if they are truly educated. View quote
José Martí
Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand. View quote
José Martí
Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness. View quote
José Martí
We are free, but not to be evil, not to be indifferent to human suffering, not to profit from the people, from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association, while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from. View quote
José Martí
Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for. View quote
José Martí
But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible. View quote
José Martí
Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect. View quote
José Martí
Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some. View quote
José Martí
I know that when the world surrenders, pallid, to repose, the murmur of a tranquil stream through the deep silence flows. View quote
José Martí
Terrible times in which priests no longer merit the praise of poets and in which poets have not yet begun to be priests. (José Martí)
Oh, what company good poets are! View quote
José Martí
Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inner light that is produced by decorous self-awareness and realization, perhaps there would be no greater friends of freedom than those who are its worst enemies. View quote
José Martí
Only those who hate the Negro see hatred in the Negro. View quote
José Martí
This is the age in which hills can look down upon the mountains. View quote
José Martí
Men are products, expressions, reflections; they live to the extent that they coincide with their epoch, or to the extent that they differ markedly from it. View quote
José Martí
Everything that divides men, everything that specified, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity. View quote
José Martí
I have lived in the monster and I know its insides; and my sling is the sling of David. View quote
José Martí
Poetry is the work of the bard and of the people who inspire him. View quote
José Martí
Man needs to go outside himself in order to find repose and reveal himself. View quote
José Martí
To beautify life is to give it an object. (José Martí)
Many houses were still full of light when, at the close of March 22, the people of the Círculo returned to their homes, which were gladdened with a fleeting gladness by an hour of justice - for there are still many slaves, black and white, in Puerto Rico! View quote
José Martí
Government must originate in the country. The spirit of government must be that of the country Its structure must conform to rules appropriate to the country. Good government is nothing more than the balance of the country's natural elements. View quote
José Martí
The merit and strength of a people are measured by their enthusiasm for freedom when the only rewards from it are anguish and martyrdom, the blood and ashes of exile, the sorrow of a house driven by the waves, and the shame of a useless life that lacks the foundation and peace of mind needed to do one's share of the common task. View quote
José Martí
Wings I saw springing from fair women's shoulders, and from beneath rubble I've seen butterflies flutter. View quote
José Martí