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It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed, in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

— José Martí Our America (1891)

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Ambition

More quotes by José Martí

Mankind is composed of two sorts of men — those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy.

Letter to a Cuban Farmer (1893)

A nation is not a complex of wheels, nor a wild horse race, but a stride upward concerted by real men.

A Glance at the North American's Soul Today (1886)

In night's darkness I've seen
raining down on my head
pure flames, flashing rays
of beauty divine.

Simple Verses (1891)

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

Simple Verses (1891)

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

Simple Verses (1891)

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Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Étienne de La Boétie Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

The poor, by thinking unceasingly of money, reach the point of losing the spiritual advantages of non-possession, thereby sinking as low as the rich.

Emil Cioran The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.

Jean de La Bruyère Les Caractères (1688)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: José Martí (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.