José Martí Quotes

Cuban poet, philosopher and nationalist (1853-1895)

José Julián Martí Pérez (28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was very politically active and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence" (El Apostol de la Independencia Cubana).

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Pen Names: muschacho

Alternative Names: Jose Marianela

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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.

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.

Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making. To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft. Culture, which makes talent shine, is not completely ours either, nor can we place it solely at our disposal. Rather, it belongs mainly to our country, which gave it to us, and to humanity, from which we receive it as a birthright. A selfish man is a thief.

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

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

All is beautiful and unceasing, all is music and reason, and all, like diamond, is carbon first, then light.

The first duty of a man is to think for himself

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

I have lived in the monster and I know its insides; and my sling is the sling of David.

Cultivo una rosa blanca,
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.
Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo,
Cardo ni oruga cultivo
Cultivo una rosa blanca.

I have a white rose to tend
In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend
Who offers his frank hand to me.
And to the cruel one whose blows
Break the heart by which I live,
Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him, too, I have a white rose.

Once I reveled in a destiny like no other joy I'd known: when the warden — reading my death sentence — wept.

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.

Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate.

It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity.

The natural cloud of dust that must rise when our terrible casing of chains falls to the ground.

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.

José Martí Quotes

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