Filipinos Quotes & Sayings

I can't do everything alone. I need all Filipinos to unify. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

A
fighter's dream is to win a world title and gain financial stability.
But what is happening to me now is the most humbling experience of my
life. It is a great honor for me to be the face of my people and to let
everyone know we are a small but mighty country. I have great pride for
all of the Filipinos living throughout the world and it is these people
that I fight for each and every time I step into the ring. — Manny Pacquiao

Filipinos everywhere are known for their love of God, their fervent piety and their warm devotion to Our Lady and her rosary — Pope Francis

By and large, our political system has betrayed its promise to each new generation of Filipinos, not a few of whom are voting with their feet, going abroad and leaving that system behind. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

It seemed to him that Filipinos didn't attach too much importance to what their first names could do to their fate, only to their surnames. — Clarissa V. Militante

It's just starting. I think it's going to take another year and a half to get up to critical mass, but everybody loves Chinese food, Thai food, Japanese food, and it's all been exploited. The Filipinos combined the best of all of that with Spanish technique. The Spanish were a colonial power there for 500 years, and they left behind adobo and cooking in vinegar - techniques that, applied to those tropical Asian ingredients, are miraculous. — Andrew Zimmern

"Filipino" is the Spanish side of our history. The islands were named after King Felipe, so we became known as Filipinos. It's a brand, it's a name. But we're Malays. Before colonizers came to our shores, we were Malays. My praxis is about being Malay - the struggle of the Malays before we became Filipinos. — Lav Diaz

And, of course, in the Philippines there were so many thousands of Americans that were captured by the Japanese and held and who were rescued by Filipino Americans, or Filipinos I should say, and by U.S. troops near the close of the war. — Dana Rohrabacher

These Filipinos will be your worst enemies if you commit the imprudence of attacking the Spaniards without the necessary preparation. — Ambeth R. Ocampo

I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years. They have waited long enough and they deserve it. It is their mandate. It is an honor to be part of this historic event. I dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos around the world. — Manny Pacquiao

Life is a continuous feeling wherein something you work for it to be happy in terms of your soul. — Fernando Lachica

I really want the pope to come into the pulpit and tell Filipinos to their faces what's wrong with them, because we refuse to listen to ourselves. — Carlos Celdran

I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance and one night late it came to me this way. We could not leave (the Philippines) to themselves-they were unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was. There was nothing left for us to do but take them all and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them. — William McKinley

Filipinos have an aversion to blank walls. — Ambeth R. Ocampo

This visit is meant to express my closeness to our brothers and sisters who endured the suffering, loss and devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda. Together with many people throughout the world, I have admired the heroic strength, faith and resilience demonstrated by so many Filipinos in the face of this natural disaster, and so many others. — Pope Francis

Since it is necessary to grant six million Filipinos their rights, so that they may be in fact Spaniards, let the government grant these rights freely and spontaneously, without damaging reservations, without irritating mistrust. — Jose Rizal

Readers of this memo will be disappointed to know that Bong-Bong Gad (sic), designer/owner/driver/proprietor of the vehicle, anticipated the inevitable "there but for THE GRACE OF GOD go I" witticism by unloading same on Yours Truly while we were still shaking hands (Filipinos go in for long handshakes, and the first party to initiate termination of a handshake - usually the non-Filipino - is invariably left with a nagging feeling that he is a shithead) — Neal Stephenson

This is the harsh truth about us: not only do Filipinos ignore books, literature - we do not understand how important the arts are - not just to those of us who work at it, but to the nation as a whole. — F. Sionil Jose

Filipinos are called to be outstanding missionaries of faith in Asia — Pope Francis

Hundreds of barefoot Filipinos marched on the roads through the Philippines carrying heavy wooden crosses and whipping their backs until they bled to prepare for Easter. Call me old-fashioned but I just like coloring the eggs. — Jay Leno

Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty. — Imelda Marcos

The expulsion of Spain from Cuba (a worthwhile venture) so that the U.S. could take control of Cuba (an unworthy venture) was preceded by a dubious story, never proven, that the Spaniards had exploded the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana harbor. Our seizure of the Philippines (from the Filipinos) was preceded by a manufactured "incident" between Filipino and U.S. troops. The German sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania in World War I was one of the instances of "ruthless" submarine warfare given as a reason to enter that war; years afterward, it was disclosed that the Lusitania was not an innocent vessel but a munitions ship whose papers had been doctored. — Howard Zinn

The ethnic differences among Filipinos are very real. The paucity of arable land, for instance, explains the industry of the Ilokanos and the Cebuanos. — F. Sionil Jose

Singing seems to be inherent in Filipino, just as it is in my race. That's why I have this affinity with Filipinos. — Luke Evans

Filipinos want beauty. I have to look beautiful so that the poor Filipinos will have a star to look at from their slums. — Imelda Marcos

Pidgin, pidgin everywhere. A peculiarity of dropping the connective, the article, of translating literally, of using present for past, present for future. We Filipinos did not speak pidgin. Our English was straight from the grammar texts. — Gilda Cordero-Fernando

We have blacks and whites, Jews and Arabs, Serbs and Croats, and Filipinos and Vietnamese here. At the end of the day, everyone is each other's brother. — Bobby Slayton

I ask the educational system, the parents, the church, and pillars of the community to help shape a new culture of honesty, patriotism, respect, discipline and service for young Filipinos. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Let us teach our people again to be proud that they are Filipinos. Let us teach them to realize anew that being a Filipino means having as rich and noble a heritage of language, culture, patriotism and heroic deeds as any nation on earth. Let us teach a steadfast faith in Divine Providence, a stable family institution, the unhampered enjoyment of civil liberties, the advantages of constitutional government, the potentials of a rich and spacious land. — Carlos P. Romulo

I don't see myself as any different from all the other Filipinos who have gone abroad looking for opportunity, to be a nurse, a labourer, a maid or a prostitute. — Miguel Syjuco

Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankindMost marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. — Harry J. Anslinger

Because Filipinos are very creative and assiduous people, they will always find a way to make things happen. — Tim Liwanag

We must work with the Australians, the South Koreans, the Japanese and the Filipinos to contain China. And then we must ask for their support and their help with North Korea. Because believe it or not, China is as concerned about Kim Jong-Un as we are. — Carly Fiorina

I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans, because however a bad Filipino government might be, we can always change it. — Manuel L. Quezon

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

Now farming became industry, and the owners followed Rome, although they did not know it. They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves: Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos. They live on rice and beans, the business men said. They don't need much. — John Steinbeck

I've always fought for my country, in my own way, showing that Filipinos are a strong people and can do anything that they put their minds to. — Manny Pacquiao

Tourism is a crucial industry that could employ millions of Filipinos, skilled and unskilled alike, cross those 7,107 islands of the Philippines. From the current projection of 3.3 million tourist arrivals in 2010, our aim is to eventually attract 6 million tourists. In the process, we expect to create 3 million jobs in the next six years. — Benigno Aquino III

IN THE EARLY MORNING of December 30, 1965, a few hundred Filipinos milled around the suburban residence of President-elect Ferdinand E. Marcos. They came in all manner of transport, from distant and nearby provinces, attracted by publicity on the celebrated beauty of the First Lady-to-be, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. — Carmen Navarro Pedrosa

Maria Clara did not faint, simply because the Filipinos do not know how to faint. — Jose Rizal

I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans. — Manuel L. Quezon

Oh, how this world needs Filipino trailblazers! Yes, we can be that. — Tim Liwanag

Filipinos are not a reading people, and despite the compulsory course on the life and works of Rizal today, from the elementary to the university levels, it is accepted that the 'Noli me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo' are highly regarded but seldom read (if not totally ignored). Therefore one asks, how can unread novels exert any influence? — Ambeth R. Ocampo

It is ironic that many Filipinos learn to love the Philippines while abroad, not at home. — Ambeth R. Ocampo

Our opponent [Cory Aquino] does not put on any make up. She does not have her fingernails manicured. You know gays. They are for beauty. Filipinos who like beauty, love and God are for Marcos. — Imelda Marcos

I came from the Philippines and Filipinos are incredibly musical. I mean the best cover bands in the world come from Manila! — June Millington

Filipinos are not worse than any other colonized people except that our colonization was a little longer, and the independence movement was always dictated in political terms, never in social ones. We borrowed terms, but we didn't understand them. — Ferdinand Marcos

I dream of a morning when Filipinos can wake up from the centuries-long sleep that took them from their past and denied them their destiny as a people. — Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

But lots of emerging racial tensions in California have nothing to do with whites: Filipinos and Samoans are fighting it out in San Francisco high schools. Merced is becoming majority Mexican and Cambodian. They may be fighting in gangs right now, but I bet they are also learning each other's language. — Richard Rodriguez

As our country bled ... its leader's wife came to this podium piously to call for a new human order, this when thousands of Filipinos were political prisoners. — Corazon Aquino

There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others. — Harry J. Anslinger

I'm not hoping to see that day but I know that my cinema will reach Filipinos. I know that they will embrace it one day. It will happen. I'm very sure of that. I still have faith in cinema. I still believe it can affect change. — Lav Diaz

When my father returned home on the twenty-first of August 1983, he had a speech prepared. Filipinos never got to hear it, because he was murdered right on the tarmac. — Benigno Aquino III

In Tagalog, we call undocumented people 'TNT,' which means tago ng tago, which means 'hiding and hiding.' So that's literally what undocumented means in Tagalog. And that kind of tells you how Filipinos think of this issue, and really any culture, right? — Jose Antonio Vargas

My parents had come from Mexico, a short road in my imagination. I felt myself as coming from a caramelized planet, an upside-down planet, pineapple-cratered. Though I was born here, I came from the other side of the looking glass, as did Alice, though not alone like Alice. Downtown I saw lots of brown people. Old men on benches. Winks from Filipinos. Sikhs who worked in the fields were the most mysterious brown men, their heads wrapped in turbans. They were the rose men. They looked like roses. — Richard Rodriguez

I always tell Asian actors, especially Filipinos wanting to break into Hollywood, to study, study and study and show their best. I haven't stopped studying. There's an abundance of roles, and all you have to do is prove to them that you are good for the role. — Reggie Lee

I'm really proud to be Filipino. Filipinos are really supportive, and I want to thank all of them. I love them! — Charice Pempengco

Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice. — Jose Rizal

American troops stationed in the Philippines suppressed the native uprising that had followed the treaty. Known as the Philippine Insurrection, that conflict had erupted when the Filipinos learned, after decades of fighting for independence, that they had been betrayed into exchanging the rule of Spain for American occupation. With 35,000 additional troops authorized by Congress, Roosevelt projected that within two years the rebellion would be crushed, a necessary step before the United States could execute its avowedly beneficent intentions. — Doris Kearns Goodwin