Simon Bolivar

Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own.

Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own.

Joseph, let us go away. They are throwing us out of here. Where shall we go?

Joseph, let us go away. They are throwing us out of here. Where shall we go?

I have plowed in the sea.

I have plowed in the sea.

America is ungovernable for us. He who serves a revolution plows in the sea.

I blush to say it: Independence is the only benefit we have acquired, at the expense of everything else.

Do not adopt the best system of government, but the one that is most likely to succeed.

The three greatest follies of mankind are: love, ambition, and the desire to govern.

The continuation of authority in one individual has frequently been the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential to the system of popular governments, because nothing is so dangerous as to suffer power to be continued for a long time in one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he to commanding them; hence the usurpation and tyranny.

A people that loves freedom will in the end be free.

God grants victory to perseverance.

The United States seems destined by Providence to plague America with miseries in the name of freedom.

It is harder to keep the balance of freedom than to endure the weight of tyranny.

Damn the hour, and damn the day, when I took this command upon myself!

The people of Colombia are not yet prepared for the reforms that I have introduced. They have been accustomed to the yoke of slavery, and they will not easily shake it off.

Moral and lights are our first needs.

Anarchy is the abyss into which all republics are precipitated.

Colombians! My last wish is for the happiness of the fatherland. If my death contributes to the cessation of parties and the consolidation of the Union, I shall descend to the tomb in peace.