José Martí quotes - page 5

To busy oneself with what is futile when one can do something useful, to attend to what is simple when one has the mettle to attempt what is difficult, is to strip talent of its dignity. (José Martí)
Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. View quote
José Martí
A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots. View quote
José Martí
The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets Those who have you, o Liberty, do not know. you. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you. View quote
José Martí
Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity. View quote
José Martí
Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. View quote
José Martí
Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. View quote
José Martí
Culture, which makes talent shine, is not completely ours either, nor can we place it solely at our disposal. Rather, it belongs mainly to our country, which gave it to us, and to humanity, from which we receive it as a birthright. View quote
José Martí
A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself. View quote
José Martí
Mountains culminate in peaks, and nations in men. View quote
José Martí
Love is... born with the pleasure of looking at each other, it is fed with the necessity of seeing each other, it is concluded with the impossibility of separation! (José Martí)
I am an an honest man From where the palm tree grows, And I want, before I die, to cast these verses from my soul. View quote
José Martí
Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly. View quote
José Martí
"Racist" is a confusing word, and it should be clarified. Men have no special rights simply because they belong to one race or another. When you say "men," you have already imbued them with all their rights. View quote
José Martí
There must be a certain amount of decorum in the world, just as there must be a certain amount of light. View quote
José Martí
I am good, and like a good thing I will die with my face to the sun. View quote
José Martí
Men have no special rights simply because they belong to one race or another. When you say "men," you have already imbued them with all their rights. View quote
José Martí
The conceited villager believes the entire world to be his village. View quote
José Martí
Peace demands of Nature the recognition of human rights. View quote
José Martí
The spirit of a government must be that of the country. The form of a government must come from the makeup of the country. View quote
José Martí
There can be no racial animosity, because there are no races. (José Martí)
Absolute ideas must take relative forms if they are not to fail because of an error in form. View quote
José Martí
The problem of independence did not lie in a change of forms but in change of spirit. View quote
José Martí
My poems are like a dagger Sprouting flowers from the hilt. View quote
José Martí
It is not the form of things that must be attended to but their spirit. The real is what matters, not the apparent. In politics, reality is that which is unseen. View quote
José Martí