MeiYah | Miah Laborte

Jose Rizal Quotes

January 12, 2009

Dr. José P. Rizal (full name: José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda) (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino polymath, nationalist and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is considered the Philippines’ National Hero and the anniversary of Rizal’s death is commemorated as a Philippine holiday called Rizal Day. Rizal’s 1896 military trial and execution made him a martyr of the Philippine Revolution. [Source: Wikipedia]

One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again. – Letter to Mariano Ponce, (1890)

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. – Letter to his family, Dapitan (c. 1884)

Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like the light, the air. It is the heritage of all. – Toast to the artists Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo, Spain (25 June 1884)

To doubt God is to doubt one’s own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything. – Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893)

No good water comes from a muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed. – Letter to the Young Women of Malolos

Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction. – “Indolence of the Filipino” in La Solidaridad (1890)

He who would love much has also much to suffer. – “To My__” (December 1890)

I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which each religion claims to possess… but in the living revelation which surrounds us on every side â” mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. – Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893)

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! – Letter to Blumentritt (24 December 1886)

We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do so, because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down. – Letter to Blumentritt, (31 January 1887)

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. -“Laughter and Tears” c.1879

Filipinos don’t realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice. – “Como se gobiernan las Filipinas” (How one governs in the Philippines), published in La Solidaridad (15 December 1890)

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. – Annotations to Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas – translated by Austin Craig

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. – “Mi Retiro“, st.6 – translated by Nick Joaquin.

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. – “Mi Ultimo Adios“, st. 5

I go where there are no slaves, hangmen or oppressors;
Where faith does not kill; where the one who reigns is God. – “Mi Ultimo Adios” st. 13 – poem written on the eve of his execution (29 December 1896) – translated from the Spanish by Charles Derbyshire.

Noli me Tangere

• I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it–and forget not those who have fallen during the night!
• Truth does not need to borrow garments from error. (Also translated as: Truth does not need to borrow garments from falsehood.)
• Fame to be sweet must resound in the ears of those we love, in the atmosphere of the land that will guard our ashes. Fame should hover over our tomb to warm with its heat the chill of death, so that we may not be completely reduced to nothingness, that something of us may survive.
• Believing in accidents is like believing in miracles–both presuppose that God does not know the future.
• Fate presented itself to some like a chinese fan–one side black, the other side gilded with flowers.
• Not all were asleep during the night of our forefathers!

El Filibusterismo

• There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.
• Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?
• It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice.
• You must shatter the vase to spread its perfume, and smite the rock to get the spark.
• The school of suffering tempers the spirit, the arena of combat strengthens the soul.
• The glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin.
• Pure and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable.

[Quotes Source]

Click here for more information about the Philippines’ National Hero, Jose Rizal Biography.

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