Quotes by F. Sionil José

“Time will come that all that we love, we will eventually lose, and all that we hate we will eventually face.”

“There is nothing in the world which an artist cannot recreate into something poetic, ennobling. And why do we read these things? They are not facts, they do not improve our business skills, our tec...”

“We write from life and call it literature, and literature lives because we are in it.”

“Literature suffers because writers give their books to colleagues who will then write glowing reviews or saccharine introductions.”

“Perhaps, this is what love has always been, whether it is for a woman of for a cause -- the readiness to give and not ask for anything in return, the unquestioning willingness to lose everything, e...”

“...the mind can also be kind and does blot out those episodes of our existence that we can't erase in our consciousness.”

“Only with steadfast memories can we now be strong so as to undo the mistakes of the past, to begin anew and build from the rubble of their betrayal...”

“Ubi boni, malum prosperat (Where good men are silent, evil prospers)”

“No man stops caring as long as he breathes. As long as he has a mind and memory, he will care. This is what separates us from the animals. We have feelings.”

“I am a commuter, not between the city and the village, although I do this frequently; not between the inane idealism of the classroom and the stifling reality beyond it, which I must do for surviva...”

“Duty comes in many forms; at times duty to country may conflict with duty to family. Yet, with a lucid mind the guises can be torn away and in the end, duty becomes but one, and that duty is to val...”

“I was shocked at the revelation of her vaulting ambition, her greed. I should have loathed her or, knowing what kind of a person she was, I should have realized the futility of any personal attachm...”

“A revolution does not have to eat its children. In fact, it is those who are in power who could very well initiate revolutions. Let us not be old-fashioned and think only of armed uprisings of mino...”

“You will be surprised how much punishment the human body can take, if there is enough will - or faith.”