José Rizal quotes

José Rizal was a Filipino nationalist, writer, and revolutionary who became a key figure in the Philippine struggle for independence from Spanish rule. His novels and writings inspired a movement that ignited Filipino pride and the quest for freedom. He is remembered as a national hero and a symbol of peaceful reform and intellectual courage. Here are 70 of his quotes:

To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything. (José Rizal)
It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice. View quote
José Rizal
He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination. View quote
José Rizal
One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again. View quote
José Rizal
Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows--it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces. View quote
José Rizal
There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves. View quote
José Rizal
The world laughs at another man's pain. View quote
José Rizal
Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice. View quote
José Rizal
I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which each religion claims to possess, but in the living revelation which surrounds us on every side - mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. View quote
José Rizal
No good water comes from a muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed. View quote
José Rizal
Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like the light, the air. It is the heritage of all. (José Rizal)
He who would love much has also much to suffer. View quote
José Rizal
Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils. View quote
José Rizal
The glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin. View quote
José Rizal
Each one writes history according to his convenience. View quote
José Rizal
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. View quote
José Rizal
He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and a smelly fish. View quote
José Rizal
The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others. View quote
José Rizal
In the Middle Ages, everything bad was the work of the devil, everything good, the work of God. Today, the French see everything in reverse and blame the Germans for it. View quote
José Rizal
God has made man a cosmopolite. He created seas for ships to glide on, the wind to push them, and the stars to guide them even in darkest night. View quote
José Rizal
I go where there are no slaves, hangmen or oppressors; Where faith does not kill; where the one who reigns is God. (José Rizal)
Death has always been the first sign of European civilization when introduced in the Pacific. View quote
José Rizal
No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. View quote
José Rizal
Virtue lies in the middle ground. View quote
José Rizal
Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age. View quote
José Rizal