Born Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, a Filipino nationalist and polymath, Jose Rizal was recognized as a national hero by the people of Philippines.
Jose Rizal was an ophthalmologist by profession; however, he gained fame as a key member of the Filipino people and a writer. Most of his writings advocate political reforms for the Philippines, which was then under the colonial rule of Spain.
Famous Jose Rizal Quotes
Jose Rizal authored novels 'Noli Me Tangere', also known by the title 'The Social Cancer', 'El Filibusterismo', which means The Reign of Greed, and 'Makamisa', which means After Mass. His final novel 'Makamisa' was an unfinished novel. Read the most famous Jose Rizal quotes from his novels and speeches.
"Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age."
"The whys and wherefores didn't need to be said. If you are reading this and have ever loved someone, you will understand. Putting it into words is useless. The uninitiated cannot understand the mysterious."
"Treat your old parents as you would like to be treated by your children later."
"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."
"He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination."
"Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows, and necessity is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces."
"You must know where you are from in order to get where you are going."
"Truth does not need to borrow garments from falsehood."
"Death has always been the first sign of European civilization when introduced in the Pacific."
"No good water comes from a muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed."
"It is enough for the evil people to succeed, for the good people to do nothing."
"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."
"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."
"Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction."
Jose Rizal Quotes On Leadership
(Top quotes from Filipino nationalist and author of 'Noli Me Tangere' or 'The Social Cancer', Jose Rizal.)
Jose Rizal was considered one of the greatest Filipino heroes and was honored with an official empanelment in the National Heroes Committee. The Spanish colonial government executed him as his writing provoked a revolt against the Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. Here are some Jose Rizal quotes on being an influential leader and leadership.
"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."
"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 afterward."
"Dying people don't need medicine, the ones who remain do."
"Cowardice rightly understood begins with selfishness and ends with shame."
"The people no longer have confidence in its former protectors, now its exploiters and executioners. The masks have fallen."
"We must win when we deserve it, by elevating reason and the dignity of the individual, loving justice and the good and the great, even dying for it."
"To be happy does not mean to indulge in foolishness!"
“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.” - 'Noli Me Tángere'.
"I have to believe much in God because I have lost my faith in man."
"A revolution, woven in the dim light of mystery, has kept me from you. Another revolution will return me to your arms, bring me back to life."
"It is not the criminals who arouse the hatred of others, but the men who are honest."
"People believe that madness is when you don't think as they do, which is why they take me for a madman."
"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."
Jose Rizal Quotes About Nationalism
(Notable Nationalism quotes to be remembered from the influential and patriotic writer Jose Rizal.)
Besides being a notable novelist, Jose Rizal also wrote numerous essays and poems that talk about Nationalism. He was known as the Father of Filipino Nationalism for his contribution to the creation of Filipino conceptualization as an ethnopolitical collective which meant bringing the people of the Philippines together in the spirit of nationalism.
Find here the most influential Jose Rizal quotes on Nationalism.
"The glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin."
"Our liberty will not be secured at the sword's point... We must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it."
"I want to show to those who deprive people of 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 that one loves—for his country and for others dear to him."
"I wish to show those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our country and convictions."
"Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow."
“One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again.” - 1890, Letter to Mariano Ponce.
"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."
"On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart."
"Wealth brings with it refinement, the spirit of conservation, while poverty inspires adventurous ideas, the desire to change things, and has little care for life."
"Oh how beautiful to fall to give you flight, to die to give your life, to rest under your sky; and in your enchanted land forever sleep."
"The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others."
"While a people preserve its language; it preserves the marks of liberty."
"Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice."
"Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest."
Inspirational Jose Rizal Quotes
Jose Rizal stood as an inspiration and true hero to the Filipino people, encouraging them to fight back to gain full rights over their country. He showed people the qualities of being courageous, determined, and intelligent to rise against any obstacles that came his way.
Below are some of the most influential Jose Rizal quotes to stand brave and face life's obstacles.
"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."
"The example could encourage others who only fear to start."
"To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything."
"One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again."
"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."
"Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks."
"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."
"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."
"Genius knows no country, genius sprouts anywhere, genius is like light, air. the patrimony of everybody, cosmopolitan like space, like life, like God."
"Once you are defeated let the humblest-looking among you sponsor it and your enemies humble you will approve it."
"To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open a book that tells of her past."
"Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like light, the air. It is the heritage of all."
"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."
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