José Rizal

He who would love much has also much to suffer.

The world laughs at another man's pain.

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 …

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.

Death has always been the first sign of European civilization when introduced in the Pacific.

Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice.

Friar! What a strange name. I don't remember having created such a thing! (God speaking to the angel Gabriel)

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; …

Genius has no country. It blossoms everywhere. Genius is like the light, the air. It is the heritage of all.

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.

One only dies once, and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again.

We want the happiness of the Philippines, but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do so, because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would …

The Philippines should be grateful to you if you would write a complete history of our country from an impartial point of view.. But don't expect thanks and laurels--crowns of flowers and laurels are the inventions of free people. But …

Is it not sad, I said to my countrymen, that we have to learn from a foreigner about ourselves? Thanks to the German scholars we get accurate information about ourselves, and when everything in our country has been destroyed and we wish to …

Each one writes history according to his convenience.

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 …

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 …

To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything.

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.