“We go from one darkness to another and in between, the hidden light of the world, of knowledge. We open our eyes and in this circle of light, we see not just ourselves but others who are our likenesses. This light tells us all men are brothers, but even brothers kill one another, and it is in this light where all this happens. But living in this dazzling light does not blind us to what lies beyond the darkness from where we emerged and where we are going. It is faith which makes our journey possible though it be marred by the unkindness of men, their eternal faulting, before we pass on to another darkness.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“No stranger can come battering down my door and say he brings me light. This I have within me.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“But God, I don’t doubt You. I can see You in the morning, in the dew on the grass. Should I worship You in silence, without the obeisance and obedience to Your ministers? Should I stop singing and, within me, let my deeds speak of my belief and gratitude in Your greatness?
The men who taught us of Your presence, who opened the doors of Your temple that I may see the light – they are white like You. Are You then the god of white people, and if we who are brown worship You, do we receive Your blessings as white men do?
I pray that You be not white, that You be without color and that You be in all men because goodness cannot be encased only in white.
I should worship then not a white god but someone brown like me. Pride tells me only one thing – that we are more than equal with those who rule us. Pride tells me that this land is mine, that they should leave me to my destiny, and if they will not leave, pride tells me that I should push them away and should they refuse this, I should vanquish them, kill them. I have known long ago that their blood is the same as mine. No stranger can come battering down my door and say he brings me light. This I have within me.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“The bravest are usually those whom we do not know or hear about, those anonymous men who dig the trenches, who produce the food.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“There is so much that the past can teach us.
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“Don Jacinto did not reply; perhaps he understood that there was no measure for love of country except in sacrifice, and why ask the poor for more sacrifices? It was the comfortable, the rich like himself--although Istak did not put it this way--who should express it with their wealth. The poor had only their lives to give.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“In death, all men are brothers.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“...it has always been the many faceless men, those foot soldiers, who have suffered most, who have died. It is they who make a nation.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“But when will Filipinas ever be free from its leaders who are wealthy and crooked, in whom we have put so much trust?"
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“We will love her, protect her, all of us--Bisaya, Tagalog, Ilokano, so many islands, so many tribes--because if we act as one, we will be strong and so will she be. Alone you will fall prey to every marauder that passes by. I am not asking that you love Filipinas. I am asking that you do what is right, what is duty..."
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“I have been blinded, as many of us have been blinded by our needs. I had thought of only my family--this was the limit to my responsibility, and therefore, my vision.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“We must respect courage wherever we encounter it.
-Tom”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“It is more difficult for the poor to be virtuous.
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“The bravest are usually those whom we do not know or hear about, those anonymous men who dig the trenches, who produce the food. They are the corpus--you understand that word--the body and also the soul of a nation. Eustaquio, my words are just words, but all through history--and you have studied it--it has always been the many faceless men, those foot soldiers, who have suffered most, who have died. It is they who make a nation."
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“If we could only learn to trust one another--Tagalogs trusting Ilokanos, Pampangos trusting Tagalogs.
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“But a nation which has people who can think, the nation already has strength. It is the mind which rules, not instinct or habit.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“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 value justice above everything--to do what is right not because someone ordains it, but because the heart which is the seat of truth decrees it so.”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“It was true then what Padre Jose had said, that there is evil in all of us, that only with faith and its capacity for exorcism can we master this evil.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“And old Padre Jose telling him to read as much as he could for the world was open only to those who could read and this skill was the most precious gift that any teacher could give.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“Virtue and wealth seldom go together. The greatest criminals are also the wealthiest men."
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“Was he the epitome of virtue because he was poor? How had it been in the village? There was foul gossip and cussedness anywhere in the world where small men had to think of their stomachs first before thinking about others."
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“All I can look after is my own farm, serve those who seek when they are sick. I have children to look after so that they will not know what hunger is."
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“[Of the Bagos:] Like the Moros in the south, they are our brothers. We must recognize their belongingness to Filipinas, their willingness to fight for her.
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“But all men die--as anonymously as they had lived, no matter what their achievements.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“Why do people betray their brothers and eventually themselves?
-The Cripple”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“How many funerals had he attended, how many open graves had he seen, watched the coffins eased down, or sometimes just a frayed mat in which the corpse was bundled, the feet sticking out, the soles white and sometimes still specked with dirt if he was a farmer and could not afford slippers, least of all shoes.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“None will thank me for this, nor anyone will remember.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“Conquest by force is not sanctioned by God. The Americans have no right to be here. We will defeat them because we believe that this land they usurp is ours; God created it for us. The whole history of mankind has shown how faith endures while steel rusts.
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“It is what one really owns in the end, a name."
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
F. Sionil José
Born place: in Rosales, Pangasinan, Philippines
Born date December 3, 1924
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