Jose Marti (1853 – 1895)
Leader of the Cuban independence movement as well as an esteemed poet and writer.
A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them.
Knowing is what counts. To know one's country and govern it with that knowledge is the only way to free it from tyranny.
Newspapers, universities and schools should encourage the study of the country's pertinent components. To know them is sufficient, without mincing words; for whoever brushes aside even a part of the truth, whether through intention or oversight, is doomed to fall. The truth he lacks thrives on negligence, and brings down whatever is built without it. It is easy to resolve our problem knowing its components than resolve them without knowing them.
Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones.
There is no prow that can cut through a cloudbank of ideas. A powerful idea, waved before the world at the proper time, can stop a squadron of iron-clad ships, like the mystical flag of the Last judgement.
Let the world be grafted onto our republics, but the trunk must be our own. And let the vanquished pedant hold his tongue, for there are no lands in which a man may take greater pride than in our long-suffering American republics.
Liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.
There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. To fulfill one's duty elevates the soul to a state of constant sweetness. Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world.
The whole afternoon was spent rejoicing as the demonstration spread across the city; no one walked alone for all San Juan was a single family.
I am a sincere man
from where the palm tree grows,
and before I die I wish
to pour forth the verses from my soul.
All is beautiful and unceasing,
all is music and reason,
and all, like diamond,
is carbon first, then light.
The struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support in the hearts of their women. But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible.
Only those who hate the Negro see hatred in the Negro.
To govern well, one must see things as they are.
Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for.
This is the age in which hills can look down upon the mountains.
Yo quiero salir del mundo
por la puerta natural:
en un carro de hojas verdes
a morir me han de llevar.
No me pongan en lo oscuro a morir como un traidor:
yo soy bueno, y como bueno
moriré de cara al sol.
My poems please the brave:
My poems, short and sincere,
Have the force of steel
Which forges swords.
Man needs to suffer. When he does not have real griefs he creates them. Griefs purify and prepare him.
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.
Wings I saw springing
from fair women's shoulders,
and from beneath rubble
I've seen butterflies flutter.