Quotes & Sayings About The Philippines

My sister is a good story of resiliency. She had a full ride at UC Davis, but she left school to go to the Philippines - and then she decided to go back to school in her 40s, which surprised me. She went to UC Berkeley, and I think she was one of two African Americans in her class at Haas. She's really impressive. — Chili Davis

The Philippines are ours forever. They are not capable of self- government. How could they be? They are not a self-governing race. — Albert J. Beveridge

Please pray with me for everyone in Sri Lanka and the Philippines as I begin my trip. — Pope Francis

Is it only in the army in the Philippines that Americans sometimes commit deeds that cause all other Americans to regret?
[Theodore Roosevelt 1901 relating reports of water torture in the Philippines to lynching in the south] — Theodore Roosevelt

I didn't finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldn't work and I didn't have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more. — Denis Johnson

The US intervened in the Philippines to uplift and christianize the backward people, killing a couple of hundred thousand of them and destroying the place. The same thing happened in Haiti, the same thing happened with other countries. — Noam Chomsky

It is deeps such as these that we have beneath our keel after putting out to sea from the Philippines: the world of mystery, of the fathomless, the irrational. If the ocean surface, in savagery and rebellion, in calm and storm, resembles human feelings - that sea on which we sail our little ships of reason and consciousness, in the violent but known world of the emotions - then the great deeps, the ocean's dark abysses, resemble the human heart's unknown, never-visited worlds: the inscrutable, inaccessible, night-dark, soundless underworld of the soul. — Jens Bjorneboe

women were considered instinctual nurses in this generation - the field had received exciting publicity during the Spanish-American War when an Army Nursing Corps had served overseas in the Philippines. Clara Weeks-Shaw, the author of a popular textbook on nursing, promoted the field as "a new activity for women - congenial, honorable and remunerative and with permanent value to them in the common experience of domestic life."3 In readable language, Weeks-Shaw presented nursing as an artful balance between self-reliance and submission. Overall its practices were an extension of maternity, requiring the classic female behaviors of cheerfulness (to the patients) and obedience (to the doctors). "Never leave a doctor alone with a gynecology patient except at his request," went one injunction. — Jean H. Baker

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

Indeed, the Philippines has been described as a "gambling republic" where politicians "hold power without virtue," dominating by means of "capital" and "crime."13 — Anonymous

Can you cite one speck of hard evidence of the benefits of "diversity" that we have heard gushed about for years? Evidence of its harm can be seen - written in blood - from Iraq to India, from Serbia to Sudan, from Fiji to the Philippines. It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word. — Thomas Sowell

I usually go out riding late at night when there's no traffic because L.A. has become almost like the Philippines now as far as traffic. — Richard Grieco

For all the failures of naval, air and army defense, the men who died at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines would not die in vain. — Nigel Hamilton

The Philippines just need 100 youth to stand up for their country — F. Sionil Jose

Duty comes in many forms; at times duty to country may conflict with duty to family. Yet, with a lucid mind the guises can be torn away and in the end, duty becomes but one, and that duty is to value justice above everything
to do what is right not because someone ordains it, but because the heart which is the seat of truth decrees it so. — F. Sionil Jose

The Philippines, it has a politics of patronage. Family and favors, in addition to the old cliche of guns, goons and gold, really do still hold a lot of sway. — Miguel Syjuco

Yes, nitroglycerin," Simoun repeated slowly, with a frigid smile, staring at the glass flask with delight. "It's more than nitroglycerin, however. It's a concentration of tears, compressed, hatred, injustices, offenses. This is the supreme arbiter of weakness, force against force, violence against violence ... a moment ago I was hesitating, but then you arrived and convinced me. Tonight those most dangerous of tyrants who have hidden behind God and the state, whose abuses remain unpunished because no one can take them to task. Tonight, the Philippines will hear an explosion that will convert into rubble the infamous monument whose rottenness I helped bring about. — Jose Rizal

My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer. — Bruno Mars

In the Philippines around 1916, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high trajectory to be struck by another player-the set and spike-was introduced. These players also developed the bomba, or kill, and called the hitter the bomberino. — Bonnie Kenny

I've worked with Filipino technicians, and they are, I think, among the best. I'm looking forward to visiting the Philippines, maybe for a vacation or to shoot a movie. — Timothy Hutton

A decade ago, critics suggested biotech crops would not be valuable in the developing world. Now 90 percent of farmers who benefit are resource-poor farmers in developing countries. These helped alleviate 7.7 million subsistence farmers in China, India, South Africa, the Philippines from abject poverty. — Clive James

We practically own everything in the Philippines. — Imelda Marcos

In 1995, we had evidence of the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden being in the Philippines, living in the Philippines. We had evidence of front organizations set up in the Philippines. And we uncovered evidence about, which would help the U.S. with - about the perpetuators of the World Trade Center bombing. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Growing up in the Philippines, I loved all kinds of movies. We had a very healthy film industry there when I was a child. — Jessica Hagedorn

Well you know it's dangerous in politics, because especially in the Philippines there's a lot of killing in politics. — Manny Pacquiao

Every summer my father gave us this incredible vacation, in the Philippines, Thailand, Europe - wherever. — Marie-Chantal Claire

There's pearl of the orient seas but it happens to be also a pearl of orient corruptions. — Angelica Hopes

The Philippines is in a strategic position. It is both East and West, right and left, rich and poor. We are neither here nor there. — Imelda Marcos

The Philippines is strategically located and blessed with the greatest resource: its people, who are hard-working, very loyal, and very adaptive. — Benigno Aquino III

The Philippines has vast minerals that are still untapped. It has one of the world's largest deposits of gold, nickel, copper and chromite. Through responsible mining, we intend to generate more revenues from the extraction of these resources. — Benigno Aquino III

Arab-led Islamic fundamentalism destabilizes nations from Algeria to the Philippines. — P. J. O'Rourke

Modeling is more fun in the Philippines — Sophie Sumner

The most adventurous thing I've done is learn how to fly a helicopter in the Philippines. One night we landed on a beach and slept on it. — Francis Ford Coppola

Dulce is one of the Philippines' natural treasures. — Ryan Cayabyab

Thus, in that inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott's army, of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans, the conquest of the Philippines as seen by black soldiers on Luzon, the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers, the First World War as seen by socialists, the Second World War as seen by pacifists, the New Deal as seen by blacks in Harlem, the postwar American empire as seen by peons in Latin America. And so on, to the limited extent that any one person, however he or she strains, can "see" history from the standpoint of others. — Howard Zinn

The Church in the Philippines is called to acknowledge and combat the causes of the deeply rooted inequality and injustice which mar the face of Filipino society, plainly contradicting the teaching of Christ. — Pope Francis

In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations ... If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa ... the independence movement in India ... ) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world. — Walter Wink

The Philippines is where the love is. — Apl.de.ap

Climate change is hugely exacerbated by changing patterns of how we choose to live, often in danger zones such as extremely vulnerable coastal zones - from New Jersey to the Philippines. This enormously increases the economic and human costs of hurricanes, rising seas and changing weather patterns. — Nicholas Kristof

I had a teacher once, grade school somewhere. Philippines, I think, because she always wore a big white hat. So it was somewhere hot. I was always twice the size of the other kids, and she used to say to me: count to ten before you get mad, Reacher. And I've counted way past ten on this one. Way past. — Lee Child

Take the following potent and less-is-more-style argument by the rogue economist Ha-Joon Chang. In 1960 Taiwan had a much lower literacy rate than the Philippines and half the income per person; today Taiwan has ten times the income. At the same time, Korea had a much lower literacy rate than Argentina (which had one of the highest in the world) and about one-fifth the income per person; today it has three times as much. Further, over the same period, sub-Saharan Africa saw markedly increasing literacy rates, accompanied with a decrease in their standard of living. We can multiply the examples (Pritchet's study is quite thorough), but I wonder why people don't realize the simple truism, that is, the fooled by randomness effect: mistaking the merely associative for the causal, that is, if rich countries are educated, immediately inferring that education makes a country rich, without even checking. Epiphenomenon here again. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A country of victims is also a country of heroes, risking their lives so others will live. This is the Philippines, the country we love. — Tony Meloto

Where countries have been able to carry through on their reform commitments
as in Korea, Thailand and the Philippines
results are starting to come in the form of lower interest rates, new investment and increased growth. — Lawrence Summers

The leaders of Nippon were stupid. They took all of the gold out of Tokyo and buried it in holes in the ground in the Philippines! Because they thought that The General would march into Tokyo and steal it. But The General didn't care about the gold. He understood that the real gold is here - " he points to his head " - in the intelligence of the people, and here - " he holds out his hands " - in the work that they do. Getting rid of our gold was the best thing that ever happened to Nippon. It made us rich. Receiving that gold was the worst thing that happened to the Philippines. It made them poor. — Neal Stephenson

It's a little-known fact that most terrorist groups fail, and that all of them die. Lest this seem hard to believe, just reflect on the world around you. Israel continues to exist, Northern Ireland is still a part of the United Kingdom, and Kashmir is a part of India. There are no sovereign states in Kurdistan, Palestine, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Chechnya, Corsica, Tamil Eelam, or Basque Country. The Philippines, Algeria, Egypt, and Uzbekistan are not Islamist theocracies; nor have Japan, the United States, Europe, and Latin America become religious, Marxist, anarchist, or new-age utopias. The numbers confirm the impressions. — Steven Pinker

The Philippines-U.S. Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement takes our security cooperation to a higher level of engagement, reaffirms our country's commitment to mutual defense and security, and promotes regional peace and stability. — Benigno Aquino III

Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world. — Douglas MacArthur

President Obama and I recognize the importance of strong economic engagement for the continued growth of both the Philippines and the United States. — Benigno Aquino III

The United States is a key ally, a strategic partner, and a reliable friend of the Philippines. — Benigno Aquino III

When the kids see the poverty in their neighborhood, but they see these successful kids who come from the countries they come from, come from Mexico, come from Korea, come from the Philippines, come from Salvador, and were doing really well, it motivates them to do better. The former students give them a vision of what's possible. — Rafe Esquith

The sword must yield to the toga, Cicero had told the Roman Senate, and the friars in the Philippines thought a cassock was as good as a toga. But — Jose Rizal

In the vast archipelago of the east, where Borneo and Java and Sumatra lie, and the Molucca Islands, and the Philippines, the sea is often fanned only by the land and sea breezes, and is like a smooth bed, on which these islands seem to sleep in bliss,
islands in which the spice and perfume gardens of the world are embowered, and where the bird of paradise has its home, and the golden pheasant, and a hundred others of brilliant plumage, whose flight is among thickets so luxuriant, and scenery so picturesque, that European strangers find there the fairy land of their youthful dreams. — Frederick Marryat

Now, at the end of my visit to the Philippines, I commend you to Him, to Jesus who came among us as a child. May He enable all the beloved people of this country to work together, protecting one another, beginning with your families and communities, in building a world of justice, integrity and peace. — Pope Francis

I've met writers who wanted to be writers from the age of six, but I certainly had no feelings like that. It was only in the Philippines when I was about 15 that I started reading books by very contemporary writers of the Beatnik generation. — Romesh Gunesekera

The Constitution says that troops can be in the Philippines if there's a treaty that provides for it, and we have two treaties with the United States. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

A strengthened national spirit can provide the motive power to rise our people from the depths and ... pour new life and vigor in the national system.
The reinvigoration of the national spirit must take place in the grass roots, in every city, town and barrio in the Philippines, and it must start among our own people ... To be a worthy citizen of the world one must first prove himself to be a good Filipino. — Carlos P. Romulo

Before September 11, we were fighting terrorism in our southwestern Philippines, and it was a lonely fight. However, we were able to contain it now in one island in that part of the Philippines. But after September 11, and after the creation of the global coalition against terrorism, now we have allies, and I believe now it will easier with allies. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

The current coastline of Labrador, or Norway, or for that matter southern Chile. Elsewhere on the map, western Antarctica was an archipelago somewhat resembling the Philippines. — Kim Stanley Robinson

The Philippines and the U.S. have had a strong relationship with each other for a very long time now. We have a shared history. We have shared values, democracy, freedom, and we have been in all the wars together in modern history, the World War, Second World War, Cold War, Vietnam, Korea, now the war on terrorism. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts, they can rest assured that neither England, nor Germany, nor France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what Spain has been unable to hold. — Jose Rizal

I can easily go to America, or I can easily escape to some places in Europe with friends. But the place for me is the Philippines. The struggle is there. I cannot turn my back on it. It's a responsibility. — Lav Diaz

We in the Philippines know we have to perform our own role in terms of promoting peace in the world. We are actually members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in many areas. — Benigno Aquino III

Asia has a great future; we here in the Philippines will benefit from this Asian prosperity. — Andrew Tan

Central Philippines has the competitive edge in tourism in its natural wonders and the extraordinary hospitality of its people. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Filipino pride. I'm so excited, I'm just sending love to the Philippines. I know they've had a tough year and I just send out my feelings to them. — Robert Lopez

I hated to have us take the Philippines, but I don't see how in the world we can give them up. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

In the Philippines, formalizing home ownership was until recently a 168-step process involving fifty-three public and private agencies and taking between thirteen and twenty-five years. — Niall Ferguson

SM Seaside City Cebu: soon to be the Philippines' Largest Mall and the 4th Largest in the World — Henry Sy

And don't worry, if I get thrown in jail in Manila, Beyonce will just bail me out. Sold out night 2 in the Philippines. I love it here! — Lady Gaga

The United States was the most unequal of the advanced industrial countries in the mid-1980s, and it has maintained that position.92 In fact, the gap between it and many other countries has increased: from the mid-1980s France, Hungary, and Belgium have seen no significant increase in inequality, while Turkey and Greece have actually seen a decrease in inequality. We are now approaching the level of inequality that marks dysfunctional societies - it is a club that we would distinctly not want to join, including Iran, Jamaica, Uganda, and the Philippines.93 Because we have so much inequality, and — Joseph E. Stiglitz

We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do so, because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down. — Jose Rizal

You have 60 countries in the world with a terrorist problem. That's two-thirds of the world. We have this group in Basilan, which is a small island in the far south of the Philippines, and the island itself has a population of - what? - 300,000. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

The Philippines was with the U.S. in the Second World War, in the Korean War, in the Vietnam War, and now in the war against terrorism. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

My family moved to the Philippines when I was 14. While living there, I learned that my mom grew up very poor. Seeing that kind of abject poverty firsthand during my travels deeply shaped my life. Seeing those living conditions motivated me to want to tell inspiring stories of struggle and triumph. — Manny Pacquiao

Technology and the Internet are not just changing politics here in the U.S. It's also happening abroad. In the Philippines, where I grew up, grassroots organizers used text messaging to help overthrow a president. — Jose Antonio Vargas

The trouble with the Labour Party leadership and the trade union leadership, they're quite willing to applaud millions on the streets of the Philippines or in Eastern Europe, without understanding the need to also produce millions of people on the streets of Britain. — Arthur Scargill

Dispossessed peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, hungry nomads turn their herds out into fragile African rangeland, reducing it to desert, and small farmers in India and the Philippines cultivate steep slopes, exposing them to the erosive powers of rain. Perhaps half the world's billion-plus absolute poor are caught in a downward spiral of ecological and economic impoverishment. In desperation, they knowingly abuse the land, salvaging the present by savaging the future. — Alan Thein Durning

In the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal - but his term ended in 1965, and she was elected in 2001. Hardly a hand-off. — Elliott Abrams

By the year 2020, we envision our group to be the largest hotel developer in the Philippines, with a total portfolio of around 12,000 hotel rooms. — Andrew Tan

I've traveled all over. I've been to all 50 states. With my dad in the Navy, I lived in the Philippines from nine to 12, and I had dog, monkey, lizard, everything. Then I was in Hawaii, and I'm spear-fishing, catching octopus with my hands. — Graham Elliot

I was doing TV work, theatre work, and some film work in the Philippines when I left. — Lea Salonga

I swear to God I was freaked out about the Aswang when I was a kid in the Philippines. — Reggie Lee

Fiction is a very powerful tool for teaching history. The Philippines was the first Iraq, the first Vietnam, the first Afghanistan, in the sense that it was the United States' initial or baptismal experience in nation-building. — Miguel Syjuco

When you live in the Philippines or a country like that, you develop something of a very thick skin because you're confronted every day with all of the problems all around you. — Miguel Syjuco

I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil. — Douglas MacArthur

[On The Philippines:] ... eighty dialects and languages are spoken; we are a fragmented nation of loyal believers, divided by blood feuds and controlled by the Church. — Jessica Hagedorn

The Philippines is a country in which a man of morals can't be president, in which a politician who hasn't been linked to any wrongdoing isn't assumed to be honest, but merely better at hiding his corruption. — Raymond Bonner

The Philippines is a terrible name, coming from Spain. Phillip II was the father of the inquisition, who I believe died of syphilis. It is my great regret that we didn't change the name of our country. — Imelda Marcos

General Otis is proclaimed American Military Governor of the Philippines and I protest a thousand times and with all the force in my soul against such pretension. — Emilio Aguinaldo

The Philippines has no policy that demands sacrifice of human lives. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

We shall be branded with the steel of clinging shame if we leave the Philippines to fall into a welter of bloody anarchy," he proclaimed, "instead of taking hold of them and governing them with righteousness and justice, in the interests of their own people even more than in the interests of ours. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

The big nest was in Afghanistan, thats not quite cleared, then there are nests in the Philippines, there are nests in Indonesia, the Malaysians are clearing up their nests. — Lee Kuan Yew

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

First World countries may have great infrastructure, material comfort and modernity, but these cannot compare with the way the homeland speaks to a Filipino's heart. There may be potholes in the street where I live but they 'speak' to me in a way that a flawless highway in a developed foreign country cannot. I may be upset by the potholes, but the feeling is a familiar one, and it is easier to endure than alienation in a foreign land. The things that upset me about the country 'speak' to me in that same familiar language. In fact, it is so familiar that my sense of humor can run circles around the very things I complain about. But that is precisely the problem: because these have become too familiar, I am no longer moved by them - at least not enough to be able to change things. Indeed, they have become 'my' potholes. Life in the Philippines may be hell at times, but it remains our home. — Jim Paredes

Even before 9/11, the Philippines was already fighting terrorism in southwestern Philippines. That's why when 9/11 happened, we could understand the pain. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

I feel like I have adopted the Philippines as my second country. — Dan Hill

Most people don't get their soul mates in their designated lifetime or if ever they do, they let them go. It doesn't matter to me who you are, who you love, as long as they love you back. That is what's important. The world seems to have forgotten that and have conducted themselves all based on the concept of love that is both selfish, misguided and outdated. And if the world saw what we see, things would be a whole lot better. — C.J. Edmunds

For Singapore, its test for its own democracy must be whether it fit and serve the interests of its people and conditions, and not serve some abstract ideal that the Western media thought it ought to conform to. If in 10 years, Philippines, Taiwan and Korea were better societies because they adopted the US model, Singapore would hurry to catch. — Goh Chok Tong

The Philippines ranks among top off-shoring hubs in the world because of cost competitiveness and, more importantly, our highly trainable, English proficient, IT-enabled management and manpower. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

There was a time in the mid-'50s when the Philippines was in the same league as Japan economically and academics-wise. — Lucio Tan