José Martí has not died. He lives immortally and eternally in the heroic pages of Cuban history. He is with us every day, and his words illuminate our trail, day and night.
The Apostle said:
"Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones."
"Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate."
"A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them."
"To beautify life is to give it an object."
"Men are products, expressions, reflections; they live to the extent that they coincide with their epoch, or to the extent that they differ markedly from it."
"A grain of poetry suffices to season a century."
"Man needs to go outside himself in order to find repose and reveal himself."
"Mankind is composed of two sorts of men — those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy."
"I am good, and like a good thing
I will die with my face to the sun."
"Now is the time of the furnaces, and only light should be seen."
"Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for."
"The motherland is an altar, not a platform."
"Day and night I always dream with open eyes."
"The conceited villager believes the entire world to be his village.'
"To govern well, one must see things as they are."
"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."
"Knowing is what counts. To know one's country and govern it with that knowledge is the only way to free it from tyranny."
"The problem of independence did not lie in a change of forms but in change of spirit."
"Absolute ideas must take relative forms if they are not to fail because of an error in form."
"Politics and strategy are one."
"One must have faith in the best in men and distrust the worst. One must allow the best to be shown so that it reveals and prevails over the worst."
"The soul, equal and eternal, emanates from bodies of different shapes and colors. Whoever foments and spreads antagonism and hate between the races, sins against humanity."
"Everything that divides men, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity."
"Ostentatious men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite."
"Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy."
"Liberty is the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect."
"Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all."
"The vote is the most effective and merciful instrument that man has devised to manage his affairs."
"Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men. The force of passion is balanced by the force of interest. A nation that neglects either of these forces perishes. They must be steered together, like a pair of carriage horses."
"Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making."
"He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter."
"It is the duty of man to raise up man."
"A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots. He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself a radical."
"It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.
"Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Action is the dignity of greatness."
"Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
“All of the world’s glory fits in a kernel of corn.”
"With all, and for the good of all."
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