Quotes from Jose Marti

"Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making. To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft. Culture, which makes talent shine, is not completely ours either, nor can we place it solely at our disposal. Rather, it belongs mainly to our country, which gave it to us, and to humanity, from which we receive it as a birthright. A selfish man is a thief."

"It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity."

"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. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness."

"Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy."

"Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand."

"People are made of hate and of love, and more of hate than love. But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything."

"It is my duty to prevent, through the independence of Cuba, the U.S.A. from spreading over the West Indies and falling with added weight upon other lands of Our America. All I have done up to now and shall do hereafter is to that end. . . . I know the Monster, because I have lived in its lair—and my weapon is only the slingshot of David."

"A grain of poetry suffices to season a century."

"He who uses the office he owes to the voters wrongfully and against them is a thief."

"It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you."

"Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world."

"Men are like the stars; some generate their own light while others reflect the brilliance they receive."

"Others go to bed with their mistresses; I with my ideas."

and my favorite...

"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees."