Jose Marti Quotes & Sayings

Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. — Jose Marti

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

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. — Jose Marti

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

There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. — Jose Marti

A good soul on earth hurts very much. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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

One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. — Jose Marti

He who receives money in trust to administer for the benefit of its owner, and uses it either for his own interest or against the wishes of its rightful owner, is a thief. — Jose Marti

Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom. — Jose Marti

To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft. — Jose Marti

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

A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them. — Jose Marti

It is the duty of man to raise up man. — Jose Marti

Mientras mas honda la herida,
Es mi canto mas hermoso.
While more deeper is the wound
The more beautiful the art. — Jose Marti

It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you. — Jose Marti

The spirit of a government must be that of the country. The form of a government must come from the makeup of the country. Government is nothing but the balance of the natural elements of a country. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

To Educate is to Free. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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

I have lived in the monster and I know its insides; and my sling is the sling of David . — Jose Marti

The brave forget. It is those who fought less bravely, or those who fought without justice and live in fear of their victory, who forget the least. — Jose Marti

Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some. — Jose Marti

Peoples are made of hate and of love, and more of hate than love. — Jose Marti

He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself a radical. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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

A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself. — Jose Marti

Literature is the most beautiful of countries — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything. what greed and privilege to build up over whole centuries the indignation of a pious spirit, with its natural following of oppressed souls, will cast down with a single shove. — Jose Marti

Strength comes from waiting. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

The first duty of a man is to think for himself — Jose Marti

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

Life on earth is hand-to-hand mortal combat ... between the law of love and the law of hate. — Jose Marti

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

A poem is something sacred. Let no one Take it for anything except itself. — Jose Marti

I know that when the world surrenders, pallid, to repose, the murmur of a tranquil stream through the deep silence flows. — Jose Marti

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

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. — Jose Marti

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

America is a land of creators and rebels. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

Habit creates the appearance of justice; progress has no greater enemy than habit. — Jose Marti

Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. — Jose Marti

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

He who uses the office he owes to the voters wrongfully and against them is a thief. — Jose Marti

Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all. — Jose Marti

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

Day and night I always dream with open eyes. — Jose Marti

The vote is a trust more delicate than any other, for it involves not just the interests of the voter, but his life, honor and future as well. — Jose Marti

The truthe wakes up once and never dies. — Jose Marti

To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly. — Jose Marti

Mountains culminate in peaks, and nations in men. — Jose Marti

Our wine is bitter, but it is our wine. — Jose Marti

People can only be free if they are truly educated. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

All is beautiful and unceasing, all is music and reason , and all, like diamond, is carbon first, then light . — Jose Marti

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

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

My poems are like a dagger Sprouting flowers from the hilt; My poetry is like a fountain Sprinkling streams of coral water. — Jose Marti

Man needs to go outside himself in order to find repose and reveal himself. — Jose Marti

The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest. — Jose Marti

Nature has placed the need to see justice done in some souls, and the need to flout and affront it in others. — Jose Marti

The only way to be totally free is through education. — Jose Marti

Only those who hate the Negro see hatred in the Negro. — Jose Marti

Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. — Jose Marti

In truth, men speak too much of danger. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

The nation that buys commands, the nation that sells serves; it is necessary to balance trade in order to ensure freedom; the country that wants to die sells only to one country , and the country that wants to survive sells to more than one. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

Oh, what company good poets are! — Jose Marti

To change masters is not to be free. — Jose Marti

Only tyranny fears the full expression of liberty. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

Terrible times in which priests no longer merit the praise of poets and in which poets have not yet begun to be priests. — Jose Marti

A selfish man is a thief. — Jose Marti

We are free, but no to be evil — Jose Marti

To beautify life is to give it an object. — Jose Marti

A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.
— Jose Marti

In this world, there must be a certain degree of honor just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without honor, there will always be some others who bear in themselves the honor of many men. — Jose Marti

Yet God does exist in the idea of good, which watches over the birth of every being and leaves in the soul embodied in that being one pure tear. Good is God, and the tear the source of eternal feeling. — Jose Marti

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

Men are products, expressions, reflections; they live to the extent that they coincide with their epoch, or to the extent that they differ markedly from it. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

Man can never be more perfect than the sun. The sun burns us with the same light that warms us. The sun has spots (stains). The ungrateful only talk about the spots (stains). The grateful talk about the light. — Jose Marti

No fruit on earth can rival the cemetery's crop — Jose Marti

Man is a living duty, a depository of powers that he must not leave in a brute state. Man is a wing. — Jose Marti

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. — Jose Marti

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

Charm is a product of the unexpected. — Jose Marti

Books console us, calm us, prepare us, enrich us and redeem us. — Jose Marti

Treacherous assassins, enemies of the people, and worthy of everyone's ridicule are those who, under the pretext of guiding future generations, teach them an isolated system of doctrines and whisper in their ear (instead of the sweet message of love) the barbarous gospel of hate. — Jose Marti

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

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. — Jose Marti