José Martí: Trending quotes

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José Martí: 206 quotes13 likes

“Hatred, slavery's inevitable aftermath.”

Woman Suffrage (1887)

“Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for.”

As quoted in Inside the Monster : Writings on the United States and American Imperialism (1975) by José Martí, as translated by Elinor Randall, p. 27

“In nations composed of both cultured and uncultured elements, the uncultured will govern because it is their habit to attack and resolve doubts with their fists in cases where the cultured have failed in the art of governing. The uncultured masses are lazy and timid in the realm of intelligence, and they want to be governed well. But if the government hurts them, they shake it off and govern themselves.”

Our America (1881)

“Through a marvelous law of natural compensation, he who gives of himself grows, and he who turns inward and lives from small pleasures, is afraid to share them with others, and only thinks avariciously of cultivating his appetites loses his humanity and becomes loneliness itself. He carries in his breast all the dreariness of winter. He becomes in fact and appearance an insect.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“Love is… born with the pleasure of looking at each other, it is fed with the necessity of seeing each other, it is concluded with the impossibility of separation!”

Amor (1887)

“Liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“The vote is the most effective and merciful instrument that man has devised to manage his affairs.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“The struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support in the hearts of their women. 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.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“To insist on racial divisions, on racial differences, in an already divided people, is to place obstacles in the way of public and individual happiness, which can only be obtained by bringing people together as a nation.”

My Race (1893)

“Man needs to suffer. When he does not have real griefs he creates them. Griefs purify and prepare him.”

"Adúltera" [Adulterous Thoughts] (1883)

“I am an an honest man
From where the palm tree grows,
And I want, before I die,
to cast these verses from my soul.”

Yo soy un hombre sincero<br>De donde crece la palma<br>Y antes de morirme quiero<br>Echar mis versos del alma. <br class="br">I (Yo soy un hombre sincero) as translated by Esther Allen in José Martí : Selected Writings (2002), p. 273, ISBN 0142437042 <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">A sincere man am I<br>From the land where palm trees grow,<br>And I want before I die<br>My soul's verses to bestow. <br class="br"> "A Sincere Man Am I" http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/46409-Jose-Marti-A-Sincere-Man-Am-I---Verse-I-, as translated by Manuel A. Tellechea, in Versos Sencillos: Simple Verses (1997) ISBN 1558852042 <br class="br">I am a sincere man<br>from where the palm tree grows,<br> and before I die I wish<br>to pour forth the verses from my soul. <br class="br">Simple Verses (1891)

“The trees must form ranks to keep the giant with seven-league boots from passing! It is the time of mobilization, of marching together, and we must go forward in close ranks, like silver in the veins of the Andes.”

Our America (1881)

“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. To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“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.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1887)

“Many houses were still full of light when, at the close of March 22, the people of the Círculo returned to their homes, which were gladdened with a fleeting gladness by an hour of justice — for there are still many slaves, black and white, in Puerto Rico!”

"The Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico" (1893)

“Peoples are made of hate and of love, and more of hate than love. But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“The whole afternoon was spent rejoicing as the demonstration spread across the city; no one walked alone for all San Juan was a single family.”

"The Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico" (1893)

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

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

“Everything that divides men, everything that specified, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity.”

My Race (1893)

“Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.”

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)