I leave you the best phrases of Francisco «Pancho» Villa, pseudonym of his original name Doroteo Arango Arámbula. Villa was also known by the nickname Centauro del Norte. This caudillo was originally from Durango, Mexico, and was one of the most important and prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution. He was characterized by his support for education and his nationalism.
You may also be interested in these phrases from the Mexican Revolution or these by Emiliano Zapata.
Portrait of Francisco «Pancho» Villa. Source: Wikimedia Commons - National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress of the United States. Reproduction number: LC-DIG-npcc-19554
-I prefer to pay a teacher first and then a general.
-I saw Madero small in body, but big in soul.
-It is fair that we all aspire to be more, but also that we all stand up for our actions.
-I believe that the main misfortunes that have occurred in my country have been at the initiative of the gringos, and I call them that because I can't even see them in painting.
-The country must be governed by someone who really loves its people and its land, and who shares wealth and progress.
-Parral I even like to die.
- At this time there are many ambitious politicians, who do no good to my race; they spend their time arguing nonsense and stealing money that belongs to the town.
-No one does well what he does not know; consequently there will never be a Republic with ignorant people, whatever plan is adopted.
- It would be magnificent, I think, to help make Mexico a happy place.
-Don't think that the fact that I have assumed this attitude of peace is because I can't support myself. Villa can be sustained as long as it wants.
- Long live Mexico, you bastards!
-Before the Revolution, I had five meat outlets in Chihuahua, two dairies, and a store that left me one hundred pesos a day, free. I lost everything.
-A priest is a businessman like any other.
-If the tompiates continue to play to the people of this country, we are going to get up and we are going to hit their mother.
-While I was a lumberjack I had very few friends and I held my conversations with myself, when it was not with the donkey, my friend forever.
-Here in this place, I swear that I will fight to the last for those ideals; that my sword has belonged, belongs and will belong to the people. I'm lacking words…
-I don't want to be like many who are demanding that they pay what they lost. In these times it is not patriotic to make claims. I am silent. Maybe one day I will claim!
-The men will not forget that Pancho Villa was loyal to the cause of the people.
-They came like eagles, and they go like wet chickens.
-I am not an educated man. I never had a chance to learn anything except how to fight.
-I have my hopes pinned on my children. So finish your preparatory studies, I want to send you to the best schools in France, Spain or Germany. Not to the United States. The first thing I teach my children is to hate the enemy of my race.
-Those are the only titles that I do claim, because they belong to me, because I have known how to conquer them at the price of my blood and my constant efforts.
-There are thousands of Mexican supporters of mine who are silent because they know that I am not involved in politics.
-In our country those who dedicate themselves to banditry are the landowners, the rural people and the generals of Porfirio Díaz. Humble people like me fight for justice and better luck.
-When Mexico is a new Republic, the army will be dissolved, because we will no longer need it. We will employ soldiers and establish agricultural colonies across the country with veterans of the Revolution.
-Fito is a very good man, and if he has defects, sir, it is due to his great kindness. He is a politician who likes to reconcile everyone's interests, and whoever achieves this does great good to the country, he will not look bad in the Presidency of the Republic.
-Many of those petate politicians have gone to tell General Obregón that I have tried to rebel against the government. And it is not true, General Obregón knows me and has told them: "Stop gossiping, because I know General Villa better than you."
- Bored of being a lumberjack, I became a fighter in the trade.
- Society, for me, is a great ladder in which there are people at the bottom, others in the middle, others going up and others higher. It is a staircase perfectly well marked by nature, and against nature you cannot fight, friend.
-When I passed this morning through… the street, I saw a group of children. Let's put a school there.
-Soldier of the people and leader of my soldiers, sincere and disinterested servant of my country and my people, loyal to death to my bosses and my companions, the highest feeling of patriotism guides all my actions.
-When I was governor of Chihuahua, the first month of government about 50 schools were built. I did not go to one, but I knew the importance of education to get ahead.
-It is time for prejudices to end, for society to be established on stronger, more natural, wiser, more just and nobler foundations.
-Alcohol kills the poor and education saves them.
-My father died when we were all very young.
-This (his son Agustín) is the one I want to be a doctor. The other, Octavio, a military man, and the youngest, Panchito, seven months old, will be a lawyer.
-I think I would like the government to establish a factory to tan leather, where we could make good saddles and bridles, because I know how to make them; the rest of the time I would like to work on my small farm, raising cattle and growing corn.
-First this one is used - pointing to the head - and then these - taking the testicles-.
-Equality does not exist, nor can it exist. It is a lie that we can all be equal; each one must be given their rightful place.
-Lately, the presses have been busy with me, saying that I want to be governor of Durango. This is because many districts of Durango have sent me letters and commissions to offer me my candidacy.
-I'm a real soldier. I can mobilize 40 thousand soldiers in 40 minutes.
-Carranza, disappointing the hopes of the people, due to his dictatorial attitude, his work of disunity in the states that he travels and his mistake in the direction of our foreign relations, compromises the success of the revolution and national independence.
-What would the world be like if we were all generals, if we were all capitalists or if we were all poor.
-I, Pancho Villa, was a loyal man that destiny brought into the world to fight for the good of the poor, and that I will never betray or forget my duty.
- I very well understand that the war is waged by ignorant men, and the cabinets have to take advantage of it.
-Run him, we'll find out later.
-Inculturation is one of the greatest misfortunes of my race. The education of the children of my race is something that should not go unnoticed by rulers and citizens.
-I have the duty to inform you that Pancho Villa is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
- Companions in arms and gentlemen. Do not believe that the one who is going to speak to you is a philosopher, I am a man of the people, but you will understand that when these men speak, they speak from the heart.
-I would be of that religion that did not make me stupid.
-I would take those on my own, board them on a special train, and make them travel the Republic so that in each part, they would summon the people to show them to them, saying: My people, these don't do you any good, they just talk and you they steal your money!
-I am not a Catholic, a Protestant, or an atheist. I am a freethinker.
-What would the world be like if we were all poor? There must be people of all qualities. The world, my friend, is a commercial store where there are owners, shop assistants, consumers, and manufacturers.
-I have made the students and teachers happy in Canutillo: the kids (boys), providing them with everything they need to learn; to teachers, respecting them as I respect them and paying them on time.
-I don't want the government to say tomorrow that I didn't want to pacify myself. In conclusion, I do not want to say that I promise on my word of honor, that I will never burn a single cartridge that spills brother's blood, because I have always wanted the good of my race.
-Don't let me die like that, say I said something.
-I have walked among millions of ounces of gold, and never, I swear, have I stolen anything. If he had, like many, Francisco Villa would have been a shame of his race!
-The educational problem has never been given the necessary attention.
-I didn't go to school a day in my whole life.
"My boy, we needed people like you, like big guys with wide backs to carry."
-Obregón does not distrust me, he knows that Francisco Villa has a word.
-If my mother is 24 hours late in labor, I guess I am born.
-When the new Republic is established, there will be no more army in Mexico. Armies are the greatest supports of tyranny. There can be no dictator without his army.
-My father, Don Agustín Arango, was the natural son of Jesús Villa.
-The campaign that Don Venustiano Carranza made for me in the state of Chihuahua, has cost the nation a few thousand men and a few million pesos, but there is nothing to say about that man, because that man has now risen to the number of the heroes.