It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted in the field without becoming part of an edifice. (El Filibusterismo) Dr. Jose P. Rizal More Quotes by Dr. Jose P. Rizal More Quotes From Dr. Jose P. Rizal The glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin. (El Filibusterismo) Dr. Jose P. Rizal Equality of Men "Men are born equal, naked and without chains. They were not created by God to be enslaved, neither were they endowed with intelligence in order to be misled, nor adorned with reason to be fooled by others. It is not pride to refuse to worship a fellow man, to enlighten the mind, and to reason everything. The arrogant one is he who wants to be worshipped, who misleads others, and who wants his will to prevail over reason and lustice."( Jose Rizal Message to the women of Malolos, Europe, Feb. 1889) Dr. Jose P. Rizal Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice. Dr. Jose P. 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. Dr. Jose P. Rizal He who would love much has also much to suffer. Dr. Jose P. Rizal Virtue lies in the middle ground. Dr. Jose P. Rizal You must shatter the vase to spread its perfume, and smite the rock to get the spark!" (El Filibusterismo) Dr. Jose P. Rizal He who knows the surface of the earth and the topography of a country only through the examination of maps..is like a man who learns the opera of Meyerbeer or Rossini by reading only reviews in the newspapers. The brush of landscape artists Lorrain, Ruysdael, or Calame can reproduce on canvas the sun's ray, the coolness of the heavens, the green of the fields, the majesty of the mountains...but what can never be stolen from Nature is that vivid impression that she alone can and knows how to impart--the music of the birds, the movement of the trees, the aroma peculiar to the place--the inexplicable something the traveller feels that cannot be defined and which seems to awaken in him distant memories of happy days, sorrows and joys gone by, never to return! Dr. Jose P. Rizal Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows--it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces. Dr. Jose P. Rizal The sea, the sea is everything! Its sovereign mass brings to me atoms of a myriad faraway lands;Its bright smile animates me in the limpid mornings. And when at the end of day my faith has failed me, My heart echoes the sound of its sorrow in the sands! (Mi Retiro) Dr. Jose P. 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. Dr. Jose P. Rizal To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything. Dr. Jose P. 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. Dr. Jose P. Rizal The school of suffering tempers the spirit, the arena of combat strengthens the soul. (El Filibusterismo) Dr. Jose P. Rizal It was a world which granted privileges to some and imposed prohibitions on others...Endowed with strength and eager to learn, one had to drag himself in a narrow prison cell when he could see an open field, a vast horizon in the distance; when he could feel the beatings of a heart; and when he believed himself entitled to enjoy the beauty of a dream. Dr. Jose P. Rizal I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it--and forget not those who have fallen during the night! (Noli Me Tangere) Dr. Jose P. Rizal No one has a monopoly of the true God, nor is there a nation or religion that can claim, or at any rate prove, that it has been given the exclusive right to the Creator or sole knowledge of His Being. Dr. Jose P. Rizal Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? (El Filibusterismo) Dr. Jose P. Rizal Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils. Dr. Jose P. Rizal Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age. Dr. Jose P. Rizal
