Simon Bolivar Quotes

It is when empires begin to fall, that they tend to cause the most mayhem.

The seditious Bolivar has occupied Santa Fe, and the fateful result of that battle has placed at his disposition the whole kingdom and the immense resources of a very populated country, rich and abundant from which he will plunder what he needs to continue the war in these provinces because the insurgents have no rules or inhibitions

My mind revolts and my soul cannot support the weight of so much evil: theft, rape, pillage, deaths, and murders, fires and devastation; the virgin violated, the cry of the widow and the orphan; the father armed against his son and each one looking for his brother to kill him; of those who have migrated; of the thousands who have fled; of the bodies stretched out in the public streets; of the bones which cover the fields and of so much blood shed on Venezuela’s soil.

What would happen if we withdrew? Anarchy and confusion.

An uncontrollable situation, in which there are no clearly defined spheres of authority, has come about in the country. Under these conditions, normal life is impossible.

You can't even look outside because everything's so crazy, especially in America. And I live in Detroit! There's the economy, and the fact you can't even open your door any more without going nuts.

Albania in 1994 was the strangest place I've ever seen. It was like walking into the looking glass: falling apart, paranoid people, anarchy, no one farming, full of thieves. It was beyond any Third World country. They were living in their own private nightmare.

Listen, 'The Purge' actually exists in some form or another in many places around the world when you think about it.

Iraq is falling apart.

When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.

By 2007, Iraqi society had completely collapsed.

If you look in general at people who live in anarchy, they have quite high rates of death from either homicide or warfare or both. Anarchy is one of the main reasons for violence, and it may be the most important.

There is no greater evil than anarchy.

A State infinitely worse than that which the most inflamed Zealot, the most violent Republican or Enthusiast even pretended to dread before the Rebellion commenced.

At regular intervals in Chinese history it suffers complete collapse and the central government disintegrates.

Nothing can compare with the untiring activity of that leader. His fearlessness and his talents entitle him to his place at the head of the revolution and of the war; but he possesses as well, from his noble Spanish strain and his education, also Spanish, qualities of elegance and generosity which elevate him far above all who surround him. He is the revolution...Bolivar is an indominatable soul whom a single victory of the smallest nature is enough to make master of five hundred leagues of territory.

The tyrant Bolivar and his indecent supporters ought to annex Peru, and place this rich country under the control of Columbia, but he has made a mistake. The Spaniards are the only alternative who can avert our ruin.

I shall rejoice on the day that you come here with troops... This land has grave need for your presence. There are a thousand abuses and political factions; but the moment you arrive all will disappear. Now they are sending a commission to you to propose a crown. Receive it as the infamous proposition deserves; and try, without resorting to the methods of Europe, to bring an end to this miserable existence at the hands of factions.

Those strutting, heroic figures who destroyed Spanish rule were, it seemed, unable themselves to rule for any significant period of time, or to build lasting institutions. Worse, the cult of personality that grew up around them served as a precedent for the two most serious evils that were to afflict Latin America until well into the late twentieth century – popular dictatorship and caudillismo, military rule – which alternated in many countries, and even sometimes merged, with doubly tragic results. Latin America’s underdevelopment since independence, particularly as compared with the United States, has been largely ascribed to such misgovernment.

16,000,000 Americans either defend their rights or suffer repression at the hands of Spain, which, although once the world's greatest empire, is now too weak, with what little is left her, to rule the new hemisphere or even to maintain herself in the old. And shall Europe, the civilized, the merchant, the lover of liberty allow an aged serpent, bent only on satisfying its venomous rage, devour the fairest part of our globe? What! Is Europe deaf to the clamor of her own interests? Has she no eyes to see justice?

As soon as control eases, there is chaos. [Yi fang, jiu luan.]

Italy, which is inhabited only by a single race speaking the same language and professing the same religion, experiences so many difficulties in its unification. For the moment all it has achieved is anarchy and disorder. Judge what would happen in Turkey if free scope were given to all the different national aspirations …. It would need a century and torrents of blood to establish even a fairly stable state of affairs.

I fear that some day or another we shall have in Europe a total upsetting of social order, which will drive all wise and experienced men to America.

All revolutions invariably encourage bad characters and potential criminals.

Bad as despotism is, doomed as it is to work its own ruin, the first fruits of its overthrow are not love and liberty.