Mass Quotes

“We compromise ourselves the day we are born. If we are looking for the original sin, there it is- our incapacity to live honestly with ourselves because we are human, because we are shackled by custom, by obligations and we accept compromise only in the light of our conscience, answerable as we are only to ourselves.”
― F. Sionil José, Mass

“While violence is necessary, it is not the only instrument for change. There are others just as good. But you must accept violence- you cannot begin to build until you have destroyed. You don't know love until you have hated.”
― F. Sionil José, Mass

“Listen, our history is a history...of failed revolutions. Always, in the end, someone was bought or someone turned traitor. We are a nation of traitors. We are a nation of traitors...we delight in seeing the downfall of others, even friends.”
― F. Sionil José, Mass

“There is no adulation for a failed revolutionary, only a sympathy akin to pity or even contempt, not so much because he has failed but because he has lived so long.”
― F. Sionil José, Mass

“You cannot ask the poor for sacrifices," I said. "We are already poor. What can we give? How do you measure the patriotism of the poor?”
― F. Sionil José, Mass