Dr. Jose P. RIZAL Quotes

Photo credit to Becoming Filipino

"I die without seeing the sun rise on my country. You who are to see the dawn, welcome it, and do not forget those who fell during the night." ~Dr. Jose P. Rizal (Words spoken by Elias from "Noli Me Tangere")

“…As the tendency of countries that have been tyrannized over, when they once shake off the yoke, is to adopt the freest government… like the beat of the pendulum, by a law of reaction the Islands will probably declare themselves a FEDERAL Republic.” ~Jose Rizal, “The Philippines a Century Hence” (Rizal the Federalist)

"But I laid down as a prerequisite the education of the people in order that by means of such instruction, and by hard work, they may acquire a personality of their own and so become worthy of such liberties." ~Jose Rizal, Manifesto To Some Filipinos

"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)

"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: Madrid, Spain (25 June 1884)]

"God has made man a cosmopolite. He created seas for ships to glide on, the wind to push them, and the stars to guide them even in darkest night." "Los Viajes"]

"He who knows the surface of the earth and the topography of a country only through the examination of maps..is like a man who learns the opera of Meyerbeer or Rossini by reading only reviews in the newspapers. The brush of landscape artists Lorrain, Ruysdael, or Calame can reproduce on canvas the sun's ray, the coolness of the heavens, the green of the fields, the majesty of the mountains...but what can never be stolen from Nature is that vivid impression that she alone can and knows how to impart--the music of the birds, the movement of the trees, the aroma peculiar to the place--the inexplicable something the traveller feels that cannot be defined and which seems to awaken in him distant memories of happy days, sorrows and joys gone by, never to return." ~["Los Viajes" in La Solidaridad (15 May 1889)- translated from the Spanish by Nick Joaquin]

“I made them think that they were more capable than they really were.” ~Rizal, Noli me Tangere

“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

"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", an essay (c.1884)]

"Men of heart, you only seek hearts, and from the heights where noble emotions dwell, you single out nothing that is petty mean-spiritedness." ~Dr. Jose P. Rizal

"Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows--it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces." "The Philippines: A Century Hence"]

"No good water comes from a muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed." ~ Dr. Jose P. Rizal, [Letter to the Young Women of Malolos]

"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 Crai]

"On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart." ~JOSE RIZAL 

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

“The principal instrument of the heart and the head is the hand. Some prefer the brush; others the chisel. I prefer the pen.” ~Jose Rizal’s letter to Galicano Apacible, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Mariano Ponce

".... reforms, if they are to bear fruit, must come from above, for reforms that come from below are upheavals both violent and transitory." ~Jose Rizal, Manifesto To Some Filipinos

"The world laughs at another man's pain." ["Song of the Wanderer", st.8 - translated by Nick Joaquin.]

"To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the book that tells of her past." ~Dr. Jose P. Rizal

"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." ~Dr. Jose Rizal (Letter to his family, Dapitan c. 1884)

"Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age." ~Dr. Jose Rizal["Los Viajes"]

"What is independence if the slaves of today shall be the tyrants of tomorrow?" ~Dr. Jose P. Rizal

PILIPINO

"Ang poot walang nililikha kundi mga dambuhala, mga kasamaan, mga salarin.

Tanging ang tunay na pag-ibig lamang ang nakakalikha ng mga bagay na tunay na kahanga-hanga.” ~José Rizal, El Filibusterismo

“Ang tao’y inianak na paris-paris hubad at walang tali. Di nilalang ng Dios upang maalipin, di binigyan ng isip para pabulag, at di binayasan ng katuiran at ng maulol ng iba.” ~Dr. Jose Rizal (Ang Liham ni Dr. Jose Rizal sa Kadalagahan sa Malolos, Bulacan, Pebrero 1889)

"Mamamatay akong hindi masisilayan ang banaag ng bukang liwayway ng panibagong araw. Kayong mga isisilang sa pagkakataong ito ay salubungin ninyong may lugod at pagpapahalaga para sa akin." - Gat Jose Protacio Rizal, (June 19, 1861 - December 30, 1896)

POEMS:

It breaks immortality's neck
Contemplates crime and therefore halts it;
It humbles barbarous nations
And makes of savages, champions." "Por La Education" (To Education, c. 1876) - translator unknown

"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]

"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.]

HYMN TO LABOR

Hail! Hail! Praise to labour,
Of the country wealth and vigor! 

For it brow serene's exalted,
It's her blood, life, and ardor.

If some youth would show his love
Labor his faith will sustain: 

Only a man who struggles and works.
Will his offspring know to maintain. 


~Dr. Jose P. Rizal

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Thank You

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