José Martí Quotes

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.

Yo quiero salir del mundo
por la puerta natural:
en un carro de hojas verdes
a morir me han de llevar.
No me pongan en lo oscuro a morir como un traidor:
yo soy bueno, y como bueno
moriré de cara al sol.

I wish to leave the world
By its natural door;
In my tomb of green leaves
They are to carry me to die.
Do not put me in the dark
To die like a traitor;
I am good, and like a good thing
I will die with my face to the sun.

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

I dream of cloisters of marble where in divine silence the heroes, standing, rest; at night, in light of the soul, I speak with them: at night! They are in a row: I walk among the rows: the stone hands
I kiss them;
the stone eyes open;
the stone lips move;
the stone beards tremble; they seize the sword of stone; they cry: place the sword in the sheath! Mute, I kiss their hand.

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.

Con el cultivo de la inteligencia vienen los gustos costosos

Cuando hay muchos hombres sin decoro, hay siempre otros que tienen en sí el decoro de muchos hombres. Esos son los que se rebelan con fuerza terrible contra los que les roban a los pueblos su libertad, que es robarles a los hombres su decoro. En esos hombres van miles de hombres, va un pueblo entero, va la dignidad humana.

Mientras mas honda la herida,
Es mi canto mas hermoso.

While more deeper is the wound
The more beautiful the art.

Knowing is what counts. To know one's country and govern it with that knowledge is the only way to free it from tyranny.

Let the world be grafted onto our republics, but the trunk must be our own. And let the vanquished pedant hold his tongue, for there are no lands in which a man may take greater pride than in our long-suffering American republics.

Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones. There is no prow that can cut through a cloudbank of ideas. A powerful idea, waved before the world at the proper time, can stop a squadron of iron-clad ships, like the mystical flag of the Last judgement.

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

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

Newspapers, universities and schools should encourage the study of the country's pertinent components. To know them is sufficient, without mincing words; for whoever brushes aside even a part of the truth, whether through intention or oversight, is doomed to fall. The truth he lacks thrives on negligence, and brings down whatever is built without it. It is easy to resolve our problem knowing its components than resolve them without knowing them.

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