# Simón Bolívar's most famous quotes

From the oath on Monte Sacro to the Jamaica Letter and his letters to Páez: the Liberator's most quoted lines, with their source where known, and a warning on those that are only attributed to him.

- 14 votes · 13 items
- Dec 1, 2019 · Daniela Velázquez
- https://even.best/en/l/4583/simon-bolivar-s-most-famous-quotes

## Top 13

1. **If one man were necessary to sustain the State, that State should not exist.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
2. **Perfectly representative institutions do not suit our present character, customs and enlightenment.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Jamaica Letter, 6 September 1815.
3. **I swear… that I will not rest my arm nor give repose to my soul until I have broken the chains that oppress us.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Oath on Monte Sacro, Rome, 1805.
4. **Flee the country where one man holds all the powers: it is a country of slaves.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
5. **An ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
6. **To be called a leader without being one is the height of wretchedness.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Letter to José Antonio Páez, 1 April 1828.
7. **Our discords spring from the two richest sources of public calamity: ignorance and weakness.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
8. **If nature opposes us, we will fight it and make it obey us!** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Attributed, after the 1812 Caracas earthquake.
9. **Though war is the sum of all evils, tyranny is the sum of all wars.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
10. **The three great fools of history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote… and I.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Attributed: supposedly his last words to his doctor.
11. **The art of winning is learned in defeat.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in the Liberator's correspondence.
12. **Justice is the queen of republican virtues, and with it equality and liberty are upheld.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.
13. **It is harder to keep liberty in balance than to bear the weight of tyranny.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in anthologies of his writings.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.