Simon Bolivar quotes:

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Legislators could certainly do with a school of morals.

Morals and lights are our first necessities.

Slavery is the offspring of darkness.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

God grants victory to perseverance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The art of victory is learned in defeat.

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.

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

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

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

The three greatest fools of History have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me!

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

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

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

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

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right.