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Simón Bolívar

25 quotes

“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter from Jamaica (Summer 1815)
“Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter from Jamaica (Summer 1815)
“The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement of 1829, as quoted in The Great Fear : The Reconquest of Latin America by Latin Americans (1963) by John Gerassi
“Colombians! My last wish is for the happiness of the patria. If my death contributes to the end of partisanship and the consolidation of the union, I shall be lowered in peace into my grave.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) first seen 1830 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Final proclamation to the people of Colombia (8 December 1830), as quoted in Man of Glory : Simón Bolívar (1939) by Thomas Rourke
“The three greatest fools of History have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me!”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Words reportedly said to his physician in his final days, but not his last words, as quoted in Our Lord Don Quixote : The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho, with Related Essays (1967) by Miguel de Unamuno, as translated by…
“Do not compare your material forces with those of the enemy. Spirit cannot be compared with matter. You are human beings, they are beasts. You are free, they are slaves. Fight, and you shall win. For God grants victory to perseverance.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Simón Bolívar (1969) by Gerhard Masur
“Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A statement made in the last months of his life, occasionally said to be his last words, and portrayed as such in The General in His Labyrinth (1990) by Gabriel García Márquez, as translated by Edith Grossman, p. 267.
“The most grievous error committed by Venezuela in making her start on the political stage was, as none can deny, her fatal adoption of the system of tolerance—a system long condemned as weak and inadequate by every man of common sense, yet tenaciously maintained with an unparalleled blindness to the very end.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flee the country where a lone man holds all power: It is a nation of slaves. - Speech spoken in Caracas on 1814, January 2nd.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Though there might be some published translation of such a statement, it resembles the remark of Maximilien Robespierre, as quoted in Robespierre‎ (1935) by James Matthew Thompson, p. 135: "There is one thing more despi…
“Let the entire system of government be strengthened, and let the balance of power be drawn up in such a manner that it will be permanent and incapable of decay because of its own tenuity. Precisely because no form of government is so weak as the democratic, its framework must be firmer, and its institutions must be studied to determine their degree of stability … unless this is done, we will have to reckon with an ungovernable, tumultuous, and anarchic society, not with a social order where happiness, peace, and justice prevail.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us give to our republic a fourth power with authority over the youth, the hearts of men, public spirit, habits, and republican morality. Let us establish this Areopagus to watch over the education of the children, to supervise national education, to purify whatever may be corrupt in the republic, to denounce ingratitude, coldness in the country's service, egotism, sloth, idleness, and to pass judgment upon the first signs of corruption and pernicious example.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Rise of the Spanish-American Republics as Told in the Lives of their Liberators (1918) by William Spence Robertson, p. 239
“The continuation of authority in the same person has frequently proved the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential to the system of popular governments, because there is nothing so dangerous as to suffer Power to be vested for a long time in one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation and tyranny.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, edit., Dover Publications Inc. (1958) p. 386
“A perverted people, should it attaint its liberty, is bound to lose this very soon, because it would be useless to try to impress upon such people that happiness lies in the practice of righteousness; that the reign of law is more powerful than the reign of tyrants, who are more inflexible, and all ought to submit to the wholesome severity of the law; that good morals, and not force, are the pillars of the law and that the exercise of justice is the exercise of liberty.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, edit., Dover Publications Inc. (1958) p. 388
“Liberty, says Rousseau, is a succulent food, but difficult to digest. Our feeble fellow citizens will have to strengthen their mind much before they will be ready to assimilate such wholesome nourishment.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, edit., Dover Publications Inc. (1958) p. 388
“Unlimited freedom, absolute democracy, are reefs upon which all the republics have come to grief.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), p. 139
“It must never be forgotten that the excellence of a government consists, not in its theoretic perfection, but in the degree to which it is adapted to the nature and character of the people for whom it is set up.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), pp. 139-140
“It is not right to leave everything to the chances and hazards of an election. The masses are more prone to error than those who have been trained and tempered by education.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), p. 140
“The shouts of human-kind on the battlefield, or in the tumult of assemblies are protests to heaven against inconsistent legislators who have thought it possible to experiment with chimerical constitutions without suffering the consequences”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), p. 140
“Absolute democratic government is as much a tyranny as despotism.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), p. 140
“The most accomplished nation in the world, ancient or modern, was unable to resist the violence of the storms inherent in pure theories. If a European country like France, ever sovereign and independent, was not able to support the burden of unrestricted liberty, how can anyone expect Colombia to realize the delirious hallucinations of Robespierre and Marat. Could anyone even dream of such a piece of political moonshine? Legislators, see to it that the inexorable verdict of posterity does not liken you to the monsters of France!”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jacques Bainville, Dictators (1937), p. 140
“We form a small human race, a world apart, surrounded by vast seas, new in the arts and sciences, though in some ways old in the customs of civil society. Our case is the most extraordinary and complex. We are neither Indians nor Europeans, but a species somewhere between the natives and the Spaniards. It is impossible to designate the human family to which we belong. Our people are rather a composite of Africa and America, which is an emancipation from Europe, since even the Spanish peninsula itself ceases to be European, due to its Moorish blood, its institutions, and its character.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There will be a metamorphosis in the physical life of the inhabitants of America, in which a new caste will be produced, with a mixture of all races, creating the homogeneity of the people”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Venezuelans! An army of brothers, sent by the Supreme Congress of New Granada, has come to liberate you, and is now amongst you after having expelled the oppressors from the provinces of Mérida and Trujillo. We have been sent to destroy the Spaniards, to protect Americans and to re-establish the republican governments which made up the Venezuelan Confederation. The states which we have liberated are once again ruled by their old constitutions and leaders, and they fully enjoy their liberty and independence. Our sole mission is to break the chains of servitude which still oppress some of our peoples. We have no intention of passing laws or exercising power, even though the laws of war might authorize us to do so.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction. Ambition and intrigue abuses the credulity and experience of men lacking all political, economic, and civic knowledge; they adopt pure illusion as reality; they take license for liberty, treachery for patriotism, and vengeance for justice. If a people, perverted by their training, succeed in achieving their liberty, they will soon lose it, for it would be of no avail to endeavor to explain to them that happiness consists in the practice of virtue; that the rule of law is more powerful than the rule of tyrants, because, as the laws are more inflexible, every one should submit to their beneficent austerity; that proper morals, and not force, are the bases of law; and that to practice justice is to practice liberty.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated by Frederick H. Fornoff in El Libertador : Writings Of Simon Bolivar (2003) edited by David Bushnell
“When I contemplate this immense reunited country, my soul mounts to that height demanded by the colossal perspective of a picture so wonderful. My imagination takes flight toward future ages and admiringly observes from them the prosperity, the splendor, and the life which will exist within this vast territory. I am carried away; and I seem to behold it in the heart of the universe, stretching along its extensive coasts between two oceans which nature has separated; but which our fatherland has united by long and wide canals. I see it serve as the bond, as the center, as the emporium of the human race. I see it sending to the ends of the earth the treasures of gold and silver which its mountains contain. I see it, through the healing virtue of its plants, dispensing health and life to afflicted men of the Old World. I see it disclosing its precious secrets to the sages who know that the store of knowledge is more valuable than the store of riches which nature has so prodigally bestowed upon us. I see it seated upon the throne of liberty, the scepter of justice in its hand, crowned by glory, showing to the Old World the majesty of the New World.”
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) said by 1830 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Close of the address, as quoted in Rise of the Spanish-American Republics as Told in the Lives of their Liberators (1918) by William Spence Robertson, p. 239