Famous Quotes by Rizal

Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother.

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

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

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

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

Youth is a flowerbed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants.

Virtue lies in the middle ground.

A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood.

The youth is the hope of our future.

There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.

The world laughs at another man’s pain.

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

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

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

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

Law has no skin; reason has no nostrils.

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.

To wish that the alleged child remain in its swaddling clothes tis to risk that it may turn against its nurse and flee, tearing away the old rags that bind it.

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

Without education and liberty, which are the soil and the sun of man, no reform is possible, no measure can give the result desired.

He who would love much has also much to suffer.

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

All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him deceived by others.

A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that has the most need for a free press more so even than the government of the home country.

Encystment of a conquering people is possible, for it signifies complete isolation, absolute inertia, debility in the conquering element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign invader.

It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great deal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.

I wish to show those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our country and convictions.

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

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

There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.

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

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