Through Dr. Jose Rizal's literary works, he opened the minds of the Filipino people to fight for their rights in their own country. His two most famous novels with highly nationalistic and revolutionary ideas are Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, two novel exposing the arrogance and despotism of the Spanish clergy. These two novels provoked the animosity of those in power and these literary works led himself into trouble with the Spanish officials. He was imprisoned at Fort Santiago from July 6-15, 1892 then exiled to Dapitan until 1896.

During his exile, the rebellion by the militant secret society Katipunan had become a full blown revolution and his enemies lost no time in pressing him down. They were able to enlist witnesses that linked him with these revolts and he was again locked up in Fort Santiago on November 3, 1896. He was convicted of rebellion, sedition and of forming illegal associations. In his prison cell he wrote a poem now known as Mi Ultimo Adios, a masterpiece, expressing not only his love for his country but also that of countrymen.

Here is a collection of some of Jose Rizal quotations taken from the letters, novel, articles and poems.

• Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils. - (The Philippines: A Century Hence)
• To wish that the alleged child remain in its swaddling clothes tis to risk that it may turn against its nurse and flee, tearing away the old rags that bind it. -(The Philippines: A Century Hence)
• The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos - translated by Gregorio Zaide)
• A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that has the most need for a free press more so even than the government of the home country. (The Philippines: A Century Hence)
• Encystment of a conquering people is possible, for it signifies complete isolation, absolute inertia, debility in the conquering element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign invader. -(The Philippines: A Century Hence)

• While a people preserves its language: it preserves the marks of liberty.
• It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great deal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.
• I wish to show those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our country and convictions. -(inscribed at Fort Santiago Walls)
• Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter.-(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)

• No good water comes from muddy spring. No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)
• Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)
• Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)
• A tree that grows in the mud is unsubsantial and good only for firewood. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)
• Man works for an object. Remove that object and you reduce him into inaction. -(Indolence of the Filipino - La Solidaridad -1890)
• One only die once and if one does not die well, a good opportunity is lost and will not present itself again. - (Letter to Mariano Ponce - 1890)

• All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him decieved by others. -(Letter to the Young Women of Malolos)
• Without education and liberty, which are the soil and the sun of man, no reform is possible , no measure can give the result desired. -(Indolence of the Filipinos-La Solidaridad)

"I die just when I see the dawn break,

Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;

And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,

Pour'd out at need for thy dear sake,

To dye with its crimson the waking ray".

-My Last Farewell- 1896