The phrases of Simón Bolívar (1783 - 1830) and his thoughts are part of the legacy left by one of the most important figures in Latin America and of his emancipation. Military and political, he was not only good at the head of the armies, but he had a charisma that was reflected in the speeches and quotes he delivered during his prolific life.
You may be interested in The most important battles of Simón Bolívar or The 5 countries that Simón Bolívar liberated.
More than 100 quotes and thoughts from Simón Bolivar, «The liberator»
- "It is more difficult to maintain the balance of freedom than to bear the weight of tyranny."
- "To achieve victory it has always been essential to go through the path of sacrifices."
- "The title of Liberator is superior to all that human pride has received."
- "The art of winning is learned in defeats."
- "Flee from the country where only one exercises all powers: it is a country of slaves."
- "The freedom of the New World is the hope of the Universe."
- «The fledgling soldier believes everything is lost since he is defeated once».
- "Our life is nothing other than the heritage of our country."
- "Nations march towards their greatness at the same rate that their education advances."
- «I swear to God, I swear by my parents and I swear by my honor that I will not rest as long as I live until I have liberated my country».
- «By ignorance they have dominated us more than by force».
- "The first of all forces is public opinion."
- «From the heroic to the ridiculous there is only one step».
- "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right."
- "God gives victory to constancy."
- «A being without studies is an incomplete being».
- "We must use reason before force."
- "He who serves a revolution works the sea."
- "Let's put fear on our backs and save the country."
- "You will always see the ignorant and foolish fume talented and alive."
- "The way to govern well is to use honest men, even if they are enemies."
- "Freedom is the only objective worthy of the sacrifice of human life."
- "The man of good and courage must be indifferent to the shocks of bad luck."
- "Liberator of Venezuela: title more glorious and satisfactory, for me than the scepter of all the empires of the Earth."
- "Confidence has to give us peace. Good faith is not enough, it must be shown, because men always see and rarely think.
- "Let us form a homeland at all costs and everything else will be tolerable."
- "Blessed is he who, running through the pitfalls of war, politics and public misfortune, preserves his honor intact."
- "Compatriots. arms will give you independence, laws will give you freedom.
- "The unity of our peoples is not a mere chimera of men, but an inexorable decree of destiny."
- "Our discords have their origin in the two most copious sources of public calamity: ignorance and weakness."
- «As I love freedom, I have noble and liberal feelings; and if I am usually severe, it is only with those who intend to destroy us.
- "Legislators certainly need a school of morals."
- «I love the freedom of America more than my own glory, and to achieve it I have spared no sacrifices».
- "All the peoples of the world who have fought for freedom have finally exterminated their tyrants."
- "It is difficult to do justice to who has offended us".
- «Public jobs belong to the State; they are not private property. No one who does not have probity, aptitudes and merits is worthy of them.
- "It is always noble to conspire against tyranny, against usurpation and against a desolate and harmless war."
- «Good customs, and not force, are the columns of the laws; and the exercise of justice is the exercise of freedom.
- "Justice is the queen of republican virtues and with it equality and freedom are sustained."
- «If a man were necessary to sustain the State, that State should not exist; and in the end it would not exist.
- "I am always faithful to the liberal and just system that my country proclaimed."
- «I despised degrees and distinctions. I aspired to a more honorable destiny: to shed my blood for the freedom of my country.
- "Tyrants cannot approach the invincible walls of Colombia without atoning with their impure blood for the audacity of their delusions."
- "In the order of human vicissitudes, it is not always the majority of the physical mass that decides, but it is the superiority of moral force that tilts the political balance towards itself."
- «A happy soldier does not acquire any right to command his homeland. He is not the arbiter of laws or government. He is a defender of his freedom.
- "Chess is a useful and honest game, indispensable in the education of youth."
- "If nature opposes it, we will fight against it and make it obey us."
- "The fairest punishment is the one you impose yourself."
- "Cursed be the soldier who turns his weapons against his people."
- «Nothing is as dangerous as letting the same citizen remain in power for a long time. The people get used to obeying him and he to ordering it, from where usurpation and tyranny originate ».
- "He who commands must hear even the harshest truths and, after hearing them, must take advantage of them to correct the evils that errors produce."
- "We cannot have traitors in the ranks, otherwise we would lose our country."
- "The perfect government system is the one that produces the highest amount of happiness possible, the highest amount of social security and the highest amount of political stability."
- "The United States seems destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of freedom."
- "Calling yourself a boss in order not to be one is the height of misery."
- «Morals and lights are our first needs».
- "If my death contributes to the end of the parties and the union is consolidated, I will go down to the grave in peace."
- "In the shadow of the mystery only crime works."
- "An ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction."
- "You will contemplate with sorrow that almost the entire Earth has been, and still is, a victim of their governments."
- "The dictatorship is the stumbling block of the republics."
- "The glory is in being great and being useful."
- "If life is two days, I want to live them with you and only with you!"
- "Let us not aspire to the impossible, lest by rising above the region of freedom, we descend into the region of tyranny."
- "The violence of force carries with it the principles of its own destruction."
- "Uniting the American people to the triple yoke of ignorance, tyranny and vice, we have not been able to acquire or know, or power, or virtue."
- "We are not Indians or Europeans, but a middle species between the legitimate owners of the country and the Spanish usurpers."
- "Freedom first than literature."
- «The continuation of authority in the same individual has often been the end of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential in popular systems.
- "Unity does everything and, therefore, we must preserve this precious principle."
- "It is more difficult to get a people out of servitude than to subjugate a free one."
- "States are slaves by the nature of their constitution or by abuse of it."
- "We need to gather all our forces to achieve a coup capable of changing the fortunes of the country."
- "The military spirit in the civil command is unbearable."
- "A people is a slave when the government, by its essence or by its vices, imprints and usurps the rights of the citizen or subject."
- «Colombians! My last wishes are for the happiness of the country.
- "The man of honor has no other country than that in which the rights of citizens are protected and the sacred character of humanity is respected."
- «All of you must work for the inestimable good of the union: the peoples obeying the current government, to free themselves from anarchy; the ministers of the sanctuary directing their prayers to heaven; and the military using their sword to defend social guarantees.
- «Instinct is a loyal advisor; while pedantry is a mephitic air that drowns out good feelings ».
- "The teaching of good customs or social habits is as essential as instruction."
- "Slavery is the daughter of darkness."
- "The people must be obeyed even when they err."
- «Yes, to the grave… It is what my fellow citizens have given me… But I forgive them».
- «I have plowed in the sea and I have sown in the wind».
- "America is ungovernable."
- "We are dominated by the vices that are contracted under the leadership of a nation like the Spanish, which has only excelled in fierceness, ambition, revenge and envy."
- "Ingratitude is the greatest crime that men can dare to commit."
- "The homeland is America."
- "Perfectly representative institutions are not adequate to our character, customs and current lights."
- «The three great fools in history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote… and me».
- "He who abandons everything to be useful to his country, loses nothing and gains what he consecrates."
- "Can this nation do the exclusive trade of half the world, without manufactures, without territorial productions, without arts, without sciences, without politics?"
- "May they send me to save the Republic and save the whole of America!"
- "Although war is the compendium of all evils, tyranny is the compendium of all wars."
- "The Indian is of a mild character who only wants rest and solitude."
- "I mortally abhor command because my services have not been happy, because my nature is contrary to sedentary life, because I lack knowledge, because I am tired and sick."
- "Union! Union! or anarchy will devour you.
- "Since the New World has an origin, a language, some customs and a religion, it should, therefore, have a single government to federate the different states."
- «I represent my compatriots, relatives and friends, before posterity».
- «Liberator is more than everything; and, for the same reason, I will not degrade myself to a throne ».