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

— José Martí Simple Verses (1891)

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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)

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

Simple Verses (1891)

A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.

Dedication of the Statue of Liberty (1887)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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.