Philippine History Quotes

“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" 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

“Can you imagine the feeling of being an oppressed colonial being addressed respectfully by a colonizer in the mother country?”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“I was to discover that like the overcoat that snugly wraps Rizal in all his statues and photographs, Rizal is obscured by countless myths and preconceived ideas... Without his overcoat, Rizal was human, like you and me.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“Doreen Fernandez' foreword to "Rizal Without the Overcoat":

His essays remind us that history need not and should not be relegated to schoolbooks and classrooms, where it often becomes a set of names and dates to memorize and spew out on test papers. History is a living and lively account of what we were and are; it could and should be as real to each of us as stories about family or about recent and past events.. If all of that makes us understand humanity better, so does history make us understand ourselves, and our country infinitely better, in the context of our culture and our society.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal Without the Overcoat

“It is just as our history teaches us: we can only achieve real progress when we learn to think as a nation. And we can only be a nation when we have learned to share each other's pain.”
― Gideon Lasco, The Philippines Is Not a Small Country

“We need to be reminded that 112 Filipino soldiers died to fight for the freedom that South Korea enjoys today; and that we have always opened our doors to refugees, from the Jews during World War II to the people Indochina during the Vietnam War.
When we realize that we Filipinos, far from passive victims of history but that of the world, we begin to overcome the feeling of smallness that sets back our geopolitical imagination. What our past should give us is not an enmity for those who oppressed us, but an empathy for those who experience oppression.
What our past should give us is neither a feeling of victimization nor entitlement but a dignity of a people that has suffered much--but has overcome more.”
― Gideon Lasco, The Philippines Is Not a Small Country

“Anna sat down and studied her brothers. Both were nearly six feet tall. The older, Addison, was muscular with a darker shade of brown hair compared to the younger, blue-eyed Purl, who was leaner and lighter complexioned. Anna noticed that Purl’s wrists showed below his shirt and coat jacket, hand-me-downs from the uncles. All eight children had trouble adjusting after their parents’ death, but Purl’s situation was the most regrettable—three foster homes since he was fifteen. The moves had been hard on him emotionally. Anna suffered too. She’d felt helpless that she was too young to take him
herself, and had watched him slowly lose his youthful vigor.”
― Ann Kathleen Otto, Yours in a Hurry: A novel

“Philippines is the only country so far, where I have not faced any hate and bigotry.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“But the fact is, like my mom, most Filipinos prefer to keep history in the dark or, in these days, sold to the highest bidder.
Who can blame them.
It's kind of painful to remember.”
― Gina Apostol, La Tercera

“We need to be reminded that 112 Filipino soldiers died to fight for the freedom that South Korea enjoys today; and that we have always opened our doors to refugees, from the Jews during World War II to the people Indochina during the Vietnam War.

When we realize that we Filipinos, far from passive victims of history but that of the world, we begin to overcome the feeling of smallness that sets back our geopolitical imagination.

What our past should give us is not an enmity for those who oppressed us, but an empathy for those who experience oppression.
What our past should give us is neither a feeling of victimization nor entitlement, but a dignity of a people that has suffered much--but has overcome more.”
― Gideon Lasco, The Philippines Is Not a Small Country