Jose Marti Quotes

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.

To educate is to give man the keys to the world, which are independence and love, and to give him strength to journey on his own, light of step, a spontaneous and free being.

People can only be free if they are truly educated.

Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.

Everything that divides men, everything that separates or herds men together in categories, is a sin against humanity.

Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.

To change masters is not to be free.

Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.

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.

Men are like the stars; some generate their own light while others reflect the brilliance they receive.

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.

In a time of crisis, the peoples of the world must rush to get to know each other.

It is my duty to prevent, through the independence of Cuba, the U.S.A. from spreading over the West Indies and falling with addedweight upon other lands of Our America. All I have done up to now and shall do hereafter is to that end.... I know the Monster, because I have lived in its lair--and my weapon is only the slingshot of David.

Amor cuerdo, no es amor. (Sane love, is not love)

Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for.

The first duty of a man is to think for himself

Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity.

"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.

Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making.

One revolution is still necessary: the one that will not end with the rule of its leader. It will be the revolution against revolutions, the uprising of all peaceable individuals, who will become soldiers for once so that neither they nor anyone else will ever have to be a soldier again.

Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever.

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.

I come from all places and to all places I go: I am art among the arts and mountain among mountains. I know the strange names of flowers and herbs and of fatal deceptions and magnificent griefs. In night's darkness I've seen raining down on my head pure flames, flashing rays of beauty divine.

Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom.

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.

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.

Do something useful and you will have everything you want. Doors are shut for those who are dull and lazy; life is secure for those who obey the law of work.

Men have no special right because they belong to one race or another: the word man defines all rights.

Cultivo una rosa blanca, En julio como en enero, Para el amigo sincero Que me da su mano franca. Y para el cruel que me arranca El corazon con que vivo, Cardo ni oruga cultivo Cultivo una rosa blanca. I have a white rose to tend In July as in January; I give it to the true friend Who offers his frank hand to me. And to the cruel one whose blows Break the heart by which I live, Thistle nor thorn do I give: For him, too, I have a white rose.

If I survive, I will spend my whole life at the oven door seeing that no one is denied bread and, so as to give a lesson of charity, especially those who did not bring flour.

Day and night I always dream with open eyes." - José Martí

To Educate is to Free.

A selfish man is a thief.

Let those who desire a secure homeland conquer it. Let those who do not conquer it live under the whip and in exile, watched over like wild animals, cast from one country to another, concealing the death of their souls with a beggar's smile from the scorn of free men.

Only those who hate the Negro see hatred in the Negro.

It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.

Hatred, slavery's inevitable aftermath.

Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.

The dagger plunged in the name of freedom is plunged into the breast of freedom.

My poems please the brave: My poems, short and sincere, Have the force of steel Which forges swords.

He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter.

Books console us, calm us, prepare us, enrich us and redeem us.

Every human being has within him an ideal man, just as every piece of marble contains in a rough state a statue as beautiful as the one that Praxiteles the Greek made of the god Apollo.

The truthe wakes up once and never dies.

It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.

Man needs to suffer. When he does not have real griefs he creates them.

Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist.

One just principle from the depths of a cave is more powerful than an army.

A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots.

This is the age in which hills can look down upon the mountains.