The phrases of Porfirio Díaz (1830 - 1915) are an intrinsic part of some of the most important stages of recent Mexico and everything that happened politically and militarily. The Porfiriato lasted 35 years, but its appointments will last forever due to the historical importance it had in the North American country.
Born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Porfirio Díaz served as president of Mexico up to seven times, being one of the most visible faces of Mexico at the end of the 19th century, a period that was convulsed by the different revolutions that took place.
- «Poor of our Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States».
- «Madero has released the tiger, to see if he can tame it».
- "Little politics and more administration."
- «Dog with bone in mouth, neither bites nor barks».
- "Let no citizen remain in power and this will be the last revolution."
- "Order and progress".
- «Mexico is beautiful and dear, if I die far from you, let them say that I am asleep and that they take me to you».
- «Humanity, wake up. Maturity is knowing how to set priorities.
- "Is it still illegal to speak against the government in power?"
- "Effective suffrage, No reelection".
- "In this twilight of my life, only one wish remains: the happiness of my country, the happiness of my own."
- «Bread and stick».
- "That rooster wants corn."
0- «Kill them hot».
- "It is very natural in democratic peoples that their leaders change frequently."
- "We will fight, then, for the cause of the people, and the people will be the sole owner of their victory."
- «Mexicans are content with eating snacks disorderly, getting up late, being public employees with influential sponsors, going to work without punctuality, getting sick frequently and obtaining paid leave; having fun without ceasing, marrying very young and having children with grass; spending more than they earn and getting high for parties.
- «I can separate myself from the presidency of Mexico without regret or regret; but I cannot, as long as I live, stop serving this country.
- "That the election of the President be direct, personal, and that no citizen can be elected who in the previous year has exercised authority or charge whose functions extend to the entire national territory for a single day."
- «I have waited patiently for the day when the Republic of Mexico is prepared to choose and change its leaders in each period without danger of war, or damage to national credit and progress. I think that day has arrived…".
- «In the course of my political life I have given sufficient evidence that I do not aspire to power, in charge, or employ any cause; but I have also made serious commitments to the country for its freedom and independence, to my comrades in arms, with whose cooperation I have brought difficult undertakings to a head, and to myself, not to be indifferent to public evils.
- «When a man has held a position, invested with power for a long time, he can become persuaded that that position is his private property, and it is right for a free people to be on guard against such tendencies of personal ambition; however, abstract theories of democracy, and the practice and effective application of them, are often necessarily different, I mean, when substance is preferred to form. '
- "The material progress to which the republic has reached, becomes manifest in the development of the multiple industries that are implanted in it daily."
- «I feel hurt. One part of the country took up arms to bring me down, and the other folded its arms to watch me fall. They both owed me a portion of things.
- «If an opposition party were to emerge in the Republic, I would regard it as a blessing and not as an evil, and if that party developed power, not to exploit but to lead, I would welcome it, support it, advise it and I would dedicate myself to the successful inauguration of a completely democratic government.
- «I do not summon bastard ambitions nor do I want to fan the deep resentments sown by the excesses of the administration. The national insurrection that has to restore its empire to the laws and outraged morality, has to be inspired by noble and patriotic feelings of dignity and justice.
- «It is a mistake to suppose that the future of Mexico's democracy has been endangered by the continuous and long tenure of a president in power. For me, I can say it with all sincerity, the already long term of the presidency has not corrupted my political ideals, but rather, I have managed to convince myself more and more that democracy is the only principle of government, just and true; although in practice it is only possible for already developed peoples.
- «I hope that the passions that accompany every revolution are calmed, a more conscientious and verified study will give rise to the national conscience, a correct judgment that will allow me to die, bearing in the depths of my soul a just correspondence of the estimate that in all I have consecrated my life and will consecrate my compatriots ».
- «The middle class is, as much here as elsewhere, the active element of society. The rich are always too preoccupied with their money and dignities to work for the general welfare, and their children do very little of their part to improve their education and character, and the poor are ordinarily too ignorant to entrust them with power. Democracy must count for its development with the middle class, which is an active and working class, which struggles to improve its condition and is concerned with politics and general progress.
- «Nations are like men, and these are, more or less, the same throughout the world; there is therefore a need to study them in order to understand them. A just government is simply the collectivity of aspirations of a people translated into a practical way. It all comes down to an individual study. The individual who supports his Government in peace and war has some personal motive; that motive can be good or bad; but always, always it is deep down a personal ambition. The aim of all good government must be the discovery of that motive, and the statesman must try to put that ambition on track, instead of extirpating it.
- "Don Porfirio has been the best president the country has ever had and it is precisely he who sought, in economic matters, a balance of forces between those who had interference in Mexico such as the United States, France and England."