Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Simon Bolivar

Judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right.

Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth?

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.

It is harder to release a nation from servitude than to enslave a free nation.

If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey.

An ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction.

Out of the most secure things, the most secure is to doubt.

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.

Our hatred knows no bounds, and the war shall be to the death.

Nations will march towards the apex of their greatness at the same pace as their education. Nations will soar if their education soars; they will regress if it regresses. Nations will fall and sink in darkness if education is corrupted or completely abandoned

God grants victory to perseverance.

The art of victory is learned in defeat.

The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.

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.

He who serves a revolution ploughs a sea.

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.

Slavery is the offspring of darkness.

Republican democracy is overperfect and demands political virtues and talents far superior to our own.

Legislators could certainly do with a school of morals.

The first duty of a government is to give education to the people.

The three greatest fools (majaderos) of history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote - and I!

Do not adopt the best system of government, but the one most likely to succeed.

To do something right it must be done twice. The first time instructs the second.

If Nature is opposed, we will fight her and make her obbey us.

A people that loves freedom will in the end be free.

When mankind was in its infancy, steeped in uncertainty, ignorance, and error, was it possible to foresee what system it would adopt for preservation.

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.

The continuation of authority 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.

A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay.

Flee the country where a lone man holds all power: It is a nation of slaves.

It is harder to maintain the balance of freedom than it is to endure the weight of tyranny.

In the unity of our nations rests the glorious future of our peoples.

War lives on despotism and is not waged with God's love.

Morals and lights are our first necessities.

The freedom of the New World is the hope of the Universe.

Is it conceivable that a newly emancipated people can soar to the heights of liberty, and, unlike Icarus, neither have its wings melt nor fall into an abyss? Such a marvel is inconceivable and without precedent. There is no reasonable probability to bolster our hopes.

The Ignorance the people live in leads them to commit mistakes against their own happiness