Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Quotes

An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.

We shall not fight for the preservation of the enemy, which has laid waste with death and desolation the fields and hills of Ireland for 700 years.

The limits of tyrants are proscribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress.

Throughout the history of mankind there have been murderers and tyrants; and while it may seem momentarily that they have the upper hand, they have always fallen. Always.

You cannot play the Song of Freedom on an instrument of oppression.

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand…. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

Our vengeance shall rival Spanish ferocity. Our goodwill is at last exhausted; and, since our oppressors compel us to mortal warfare, they shall disappear from America and our land shall be purged of the monsters that infest it. Our hate shall be inexorable and our war shall be to the death.

Across the region, those rights that we take for granted are being claimed with joy by those who are prying loose the grip of an iron fist.

When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust.

Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit - appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free . . . .

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

Who Rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the oppressor turned slave.

History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

My fellow revolutionaries, liberation is a noble cause. We must fight to obtain it.

Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.

I fear that, tired of anarchy, you may hope at the end for a return of oppression and that you may welcome the yoke of the first fortunate adventurer who shows up, who, far from consolidating your destiny, will only prolong your servitude

Yes, citizens, Iturbide was a traitor, a hypocrite and an impious man who destroyed the assembly in which the people had deposited their sovereignty in order to appropriate it all to himself

What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes

The removal of a tyrant is not merely justifiable; it is the highest duty of every true revolutionist.

Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest.

Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny

The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.

The bounty you must pay for freedom is to give the strength of your arms to put down tyranny. One short hour will deliver our country from the oppressor; and freedom in religion, peace and tranquility, equal laws and an improved country will be the prize.