Simón Bolívar Quotes

All who have served the Revolution have plowed the sea.

How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?

un estado demasiado extenso en sí mismo o por sus dependencias, al cabo viene en decadencia y convierte su forma libre en otra tiránica; relaja los principios que deben conservarla y ocurre, por último, al despotismo.

Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction

How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!

Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own.

The most grievous error committed by Venezuela in making her start on the political stage was, as none can deny, her fatal adoption of the system of tolerance—a system long condemned as weak and inadequate by every man of common sense, yet tenaciously maintained with an unparalleled blindness to the very end.

Beware the nation in which one man rules, for it is a nation of slaves.

It must never be forgotten that the excellence of a government consists, not in its theoretic perfection, but in the degree to which it is adapted to the nature and character of the people for whom it is set up.

Venezuelans! An army of brothers, sent by the Supreme Congress of New Granada, has come to liberate you, and is now amongst you after having expelled the oppressors from the provinces of Mérida and Trujillo. We have been sent to destroy the Spaniards, to protect Americans and to re-establish the republican governments which made up the Venezuelan Confederation. The states which we have liberated are once again ruled by their old constitutions and leaders, and they fully enjoy their liberty and independence. Our sole mission is to break the chains of servitude which still oppress some of our peoples. We have no intention of passing laws or exercising power, even though the laws of war might authorize us to do so.

Do not compare your material forces with those of the enemy. Spirit cannot be compared with matter. You are human beings, they are beasts. You are free, they are slaves. Fight, and you shall win. For God grants victory to perseverance.

Damn it! How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?

The continuation of authority in the same person has frequently proved the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential to the system of popular governments, because there is nothing so dangerous as to suffer Power to be vested for a long time in one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation and tyranny.

Absolute democratic government is as much a tyranny as despotism.

De lo heroico a lo ridículo no hay más que un paso.