We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it.
The vote is a trust more delicate than any other, for it involves not just the interests of the voter, but his life, honor and future as well.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Voting is a significant responsibility that affects not just individual interests but also one's dignity and future.
This quote emphasizes the profound significance of the act of voting. Jose Marti highlights that voting is not merely a right or duty, but a trust that carries immense weight and consequences, as it influences not only the individual's immediate concerns but also their life trajectory, personal honor, and future opportunities. Thus, it reflects the grave responsibility voters bear in choosing representatives and policies that will shape their society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a rally promoting civic engagement, this quote can inspire attendees to recognize the importance of their votes.
More from Jose Marti
All quotes βLike bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.
Men have no special right because they belong to one race or another: the word man defines all rights.
Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate. Action is the dignity of greatness.
Man is a living duty, a depository of powers that he must not leave in a brute state. Man is a wing.
Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.
Similar quotes
No government can be strong and flourishing while the national character is weak and degraded. A government must flourish and decay with its subjects; and, when a prince makes a law or performs an action which has a tendency to injure the character or prosperity of the nation, he injures himself.
Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions, and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue.
Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.
I want to reform the tax code so that it's simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on incomes over $250,000 - the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president; the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history, and a lot of millionaires to boot.
A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'