Ralph Sy Siong Kiao > Ralph's Quotes

“School made us 'literate' but did not teach us to read for pleasure.”
― Ambeth Ocampo

“It is ironic that many Filipinos learn to love the Philippines while abroad, not at home.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“As you can see, there are quite a number of things taught in school that one has to unlearn or at least correct.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Sometimes it pays not to be interested in what happened but in what did not happen.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Filipinos are not a reading people, and despite the compulsory course on the life and works of Rizal today, from the elementary to the university levels, it is accepted that the 'Noli me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo' are highly regarded but seldom read (if not totally ignored). Therefore one asks, how can unread novels exert any influence?”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Rizal learned the right ideas at the wrong time, and for this he was shot.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Who says history is stagnant? For a historian, facts do not change; it is the way we look at things, our interpretations, that are always changing. This is what makes history exciting - that we can always find something new in what is old.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“We make Rizal in our own image and likeness. Our image of Rizal is usually formed or deformed in school through numerous biographies with flattering titles.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“A historian can never claim to have the last word on anything as he is limited by his sources and further so by his viewpoint.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“If we cannot agree on what was important yesterday, what more on events that happened a hundred or three hundred years ago? The point here is that history is open ended and we cannot be sure about the past. So why study history? Because it teaches us to see the connections between events. Knowing how and why a certain event happened is helpful because in many cases people separated by time and place can sometimes be in similar situations. They can be mentally contemporaneous without knowing it. History gives us hindsight.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“Rizal's greatest misfortune is being national hero of the Philippines.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“Rizal" is a compulsory course in school, but few teachers make Rizal's novels interesting. If students are taught to enjoy Rizal's works as literature instead of as a lodemine of 'patriotic' allusions I am sure they would not mind reading and rereading the 'Noli me Tangere'.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Even a quick reading of Rizal's trial will prove that those who take Constantino's works uncritically are likewise guilty of "Veneration Without Understanding." Since there is so much fiction and faction in history it is always essential to return to the sources.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures