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Quotes from Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos — José Martí

1853–1895 Cuba

← All quotes by José Martí

26 quotes

Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

There must be a certain amount of decorum in the world, just as there must be a certain amount of light.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Every human being has within him an ideal man, just as every piece of marble contains in a rough state a statue as beautiful as the one that Praxiteles the Greek made of the god Apollo.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

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

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together. You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

In truth, men speak too much of danger.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. To fulfill one's duty elevates the soul to a state of constant sweetness. Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

We are free, but not to be evil, not to be indifferent to human suffering, not to profit from the people, from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association, while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from.

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: José Martí (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.