Sure, call me any ugly name you choose —
Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again “ Esquire (1936).
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
To govern well, one must see things as they are.
José Martí, Nuestra América (1891).
The glory of saving a country is not for him who has contributed to its ruin.
José Rizal, El Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed, 1891 — Charles Derbyshire, translator).
A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one’s self from the tyranny of any of them.
José Martí, On Oscar Wilde (1882).
Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001).
Society is the most powerful conception in the world and society has no existence whatsoever.
Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography (1928).