José Martí Quotes

Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.

"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.

Injértese en nuestras Repúblicas el mundo; pero el tronco ha de ser el de nuestras Repúblicas. Y

A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots. He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself a radical.

To beautify life is to give it an object.

Porque usted sabe, general, que mover un país, por pequeño que sea, es obra de gigantes. Y quien no se sienta gigante de amor, o de valor, o de pensamiento, o de paciencia, no debe emprenderla

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.

Mi verso es como un puñal que por el puño, echa flor

Todo es hermoso y constante,
Todo es música y razón,
Y todo, como el diamante,
Antes que luz es carbón.

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. A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.

La libertad cuesta muy cara, y es necesario o resignarse a vivir sin ella o decidirse a comprarla por su precio.

We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it. 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.

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

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.

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