Jose Rizal Quotes

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Jose Rizal

Profession : Writer

Birth : June 19, 1861

Experience has everywhere shown us, and especially in the Philippines, that the classes which are better off have always been addicted to peace and order because they live comparatively better and may be the losers in civil disturbances.

Jose Rizal

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

Jose Rizal

I may be what my enemies desire me to be, yet never an accusation are they able to hurl against me which makes me blush or lower my forehead; and I hope that God will be merciful enough with me, to prevent me from committing one of those faults which would involve my family.

Jose Rizal

When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement!

Jose Rizal

As God has not made anything useless in this world, as all beings fulfill obligations or a role in the sublime drama of Creation, I cannot exempt from this duty, and small though it be, I too have a mission to fill, as for example: alleviating the sufferings of my fellowmen.

Jose Rizal

To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for?

Jose Rizal

I do not write for this generation. I am writing for other ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books, the work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which interprets these writings will be an educated generation; they will understand me and say: 'Not all were asleep in the nighttime of our grandparents.'

Jose Rizal

The government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh and estimate them better, and this need increases when a country like the Philippines is concerned, where the inhabitants speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities.

Jose Rizal

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

Jose Rizal

No one ceases to be a man, no one forfeits his rights to civilization merely by being more or less uncultured, and since the Filipino is regarded as a fit citizen when he is asked to pay taxes or shed his blood to defend the fatherland, why must this fitness be denied him when the question arises of granting him some right?

Jose Rizal

The youth is the hope of our future.

Jose Rizal

If the Philippines must remain under the control of Spain, they will necessarily have to be transformed in a political sense, for the course of their history and the needs of their inhabitants so require.

Jose Rizal

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.

Jose Rizal

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

Jose Rizal

Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest.

Jose Rizal

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.

Jose Rizal

My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties.

Jose Rizal

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

Jose Rizal

We young Filipinos are trying to make over a nation and must not halt in our march, but from time to time turn our gaze upon our elders. We shall wish to read in their countenances approval of our actions.

Jose Rizal

The Filipino embraces civilization and lives and thrives in every clime, in contact with every people.

Jose Rizal