Quotes from Jose Rizal

Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.

On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.

Ang sagot sa dahas ay dahas, kapag bingi sa katuwiran.

Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice.

People believe that madness is when you don't think as they do, which is why they take me for a madman." -Old Tasio

In critical moments, to declare oneself neutral is to be exposed to the wrath of both the contending parties.

Nadidilidili ko na ang umaga ay nilalang upang ihanda sa pagtatamasa ng kasiyahan sa kinahapunan at ang gabi'y upang mangarap at magsaya sa mga alaalang pumupukaw ng damdamin. -Salome

You must know where you are from in order to get where you are going.

My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties.

To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for?

I do not write for this generation. I am writing for other ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books, the work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which interprets these writings will be an educated generation; they will understand me and say: 'Not all were asleep in the nighttime of our grandparents.'

Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.

I have recommended in my writings the study of civic virtues, without which there is no redemption. I have written likewise (and repeat my words) that reforms, to be beneficial, must come from above, that those which come from below are irregularly gained and uncertain.

If the Philippines must remain under the control of Spain, they will necessarily have to be transformed in a political sense, for the course of their history and the needs of their inhabitants so require.

History does not record in its annals any lasting domination exercised by one people over another, of different race, of diverse usages and customs, of opposite and divergent ideals. One of the two had to yield and succumb.

We young Filipinos are trying to make over a nation and must not halt in our march, but from time to time turn our gaze upon our elders. We shall wish to read in their countenances approval of our actions.

Routine is a declivity down which many governments slide, and routine says that freedom of the press is dangerous.

If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts, they can rest assured that neither England, nor Germany, nor France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what Spain has been unable to hold.

The batteries are gradually becoming charged, and if the prudence of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, some day the spark will be generated.

On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.

Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter.

To live is to be among men, and to be among men is to struggle, a struggle not only with them but with oneself; with their passions, but also with one's own.

It is not the criminals who arouse the hatred of others, but the men who are honest.

Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction.