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Philippines Quotes

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Philippines Quotes

“Inevitably, though, there will always be a significant part of the past which can neither be burnt nor banished to the soothing limbo of forgetfulness— myself. I was and still am that same ship which carried me to the new shore, the same vessel containing all the memories and dreams of the child in the brick house with the toy tea set. I am the shore I left behind as well as the home I return to every evening. The voyage cannot proceed without me.”

SelfImmigrationVesselPhilippinesFilipinoDiasporaShipVoyageMigrantFlipinoxHouselessLandless
Author:Luisa A. Igloria
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“Most people don’t get their soul mates in their designated lifetime or if ever they do, they let them go. It doesn’t matter to me who you are, who you love, as long as they love you back. That is what’s important. The world seems to have forgotten that and have conducted themselves all based on the concept of love that is both selfish, misguided and outdated. And if the world saw what we see, things would be a whole lot better.”

MythologyUrban FantasyPhilippinesEbookSojournC J EdmundsDark DistrictPhilippine MythologyStrange Lit
Book:#StrangeLit: Darkest Dreams
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“Pinapakita nyong mga dayuhang libro pa rin at mga dayuhang libro lang ang tinatangkilik ng mga tao. Bakit magsusugal ang mga publisher sa Pilipinong manunulat kung hindi naman pala mabili ang mga kwentong isinusulat ng mga Pilipino? At kung walang mga publisher na tatanggap ng mga trabaho ng mga Pilipinong manunulat, sino pa ang gugustong magsulat? Kung walang magsusulat, ano ang kahihinatnan ng panitikan sa bansa at sa kakayanan nating bumasa't sumulat?”

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Book:Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin
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“Major General Leonard Wood Leonard Wood was an army officer and physician, born October 9, 1860 in Winchester, New Hampshire. His first assignment was in 1886 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona where he fought in the last campaign against the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory and was promoted to the rank of Captain, commanding a detachment of the 8th Infantry. From 1887 to 1898, he served as a medical officer in a number of positions, the last of which was as the personal physician to President William McKinley. In 1898 at the beginning of the war with Spain, he was given command of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry. The regiment was soon to be known as the “Rough Riders." Wood lead his men on the famous charge up San Juan Hill and was given a field promotion to brigadier general. In 1898 he was appointed the Military Governor of Santiago de Cuba. In 1920, as a retired Major General, Wood ran as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, losing to Warren Harding. In 1921 following his defeat, General Wood accepted the post of Governor General of the Philippines. He held this position from 1921 to 1927, when he died of a brain tumor in Boston, on 7 August 1927, at 66 years of age after which he was buried, with full honors, in Arlington National Cemetery.”

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Author:Captain Hank Bracker
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“And yet—and yet—she enchants me, intrigues me, draws me like sin to hellfire. The infernal regions in the hollow between her breasts, wet and warm, dark and dense, offers delicious emptiness, captivating, overpowering, like the bottom of a well, the abyss beneath a hanging bridge on a dreary, gloomy day when all hope is gone and death is like the serpent in Eden.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoAmsterdamDiasporaManilaRed Light DistrictThe Last Temptation
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“...humor is, in fact, a Filipino national weapon---one that is utilized not only to reflect social foibles and cultural beliefs that allow Filipinos to find belonging in using humor as a response to crippling national horrors, but one that is used to train an apparently disparaging look at themselves as victims of embarrassing and painful historical, political, or cultural circumstances. We see in these texts that the laughter that resonates in the Filipino is more than just an acceptable national trait that underscores the fixed Filipino stereotype of cheerfulness and pleasantness.”

HumorPhilippinesFilipinoFilipino CultureFilipino Humor
Author:Maria Rhodora G. Ancheta
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“For freedom would not be easy. It never is. It would be more difficult for the Philippines than for many countries, because we had to face the fact that the islands, although potentially rich, had not tapped their resources. We were a poor country and a small one, and we could not afford to be hurled unprepared into competition with countries larger and richer and more powerful and far better trained. The Tydings-McDuffie Act means we could prepare.”

HistoryPolicyPhilippinesInternational Trade
Book:I Walked With Heroes
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“From my keen observation, it is a very sad fact that the Philippines’ current administration's drug war crisis has fully pressed the pedal of acceleration to more division, hatred, cycles of violence (copycat killings, summary killings, extra judicial killings, collateral victims of drug war), toxic revenge, and perpetual impunity. ~ Angelica Hopes, reflections on Drug War in the Philippines”

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Author:Angelica Hopes
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“Listen to your kuya, sister. Got three type kilikili.” He raises his finger. “One, that kano armpit smell like butter, burger, dollar; two, that Chinese intsik one smell like noodles, siopao, yuan; three, that bumbay one bad smell like roti, curry, rupee. Next time, find a kano who smells like butter, burger, or dollar. Curry not good. Rupee also not good, ba.”

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Book:Saint Richard Parker
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“About five years ago, on our first day of office — Build, Build, Build Czar Mark Villar and I were talking — “What can we do to make the Philippines a better place?” His answer was simple —roads to the most rural areas so that children can go to school without risking their lives, bridges to connect farmers and fishermen to their markets and infrastructure that would open up opportunities in the countryside and allow Filipinos to dream and aspire for a better future.”

InfrastructurePhilippinesFilipinosBuild Build BuildMark Villar
Book:Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual
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“Build, Build, Build has been the target of fake news, trolls, and critics. They have tried to redefine it far from its scope — and in their “proud, most credible voice” — report it as truth. Are they confused or just simply cunning? During the upcoming elections, many will try to discredit the accomplishments of 6.5 million construction workers. They will say that what we have completed is not enough, that there could have been many things that we could have done still, or that we never really worked at all. Allow me to say — if you are reading this, and you’re part of the Build, Build, Build team - without you, we wouldn’t have been able to build 29,264 kilometers of roads, 5,950 bridges, 11,340 flood control projects, 222 evacuation centers, 150,149 classrooms, 214 airport projects, and 451 seaport projects.”

InfrastructurePhilippinesFake NewsFilipinosBuild Build Build
Book:Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual
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“Our critics were correct — it would have been impossible for us to implement Build, Build, Build alone. We knew it from the start. If not for the help of the 6.5 million Filipinos who willingly took part of the shared vision of creating a more comfortable life for all, big ticket projects would remain in the pipeline.”

PhilippinesFilipinosBuild Build BuildDuterteOfwVillar
Book:Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual
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“If I were in Manila, I doubt I would ever have to make a trip to the grocery alone. There would be family—sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, in the absence of whom, amigas, yayas, even drivers could be counted on… If I were in Manila, instead of here, I would never have enough time to sit alone on a bench on the sidewalk or walk down the street or ride trains by myself. I would be chauffeured. I would be chaperoned. I would spend Sunday afternoons playing mah-jong or having tea or shopping or exchanging gossip with my friends, rather than sweeping floors or doing the laundry or tending to the garden or overseeing the work of some enterprising teen shoveling the snow off the front yard.”

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Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“The archipelagic nature of the Philippines posed a number of difficulties in the monitoring and implementation of Build, Build, Build projects. How do we monitor 20,000 projects simultaneously in a country composed of roughly 7,640 islands? How do we get rid of ghost projects? How do we minimize discretion at DPWH? Secretary Mark Villar was adamant to find a solution, one that was progressive, forward thinking, and feasible. First, he introduced an automated monitoring system called the Infra-Track App, which utilizes geo-tagging, satellite technology, and drone monitoring.”

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Author:Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo , Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual
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“Anton does not have a need to give our home a touch of anything British. This British man living in this house, with his blind devotion to—his love affair with—not the Orient, but his idea of the Orient, colored by its history, its culture, its underdog-now-having-its-revenge role in world affairs, is all the British this house ever needs.”

RomanceFictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoEstrangementManilaPhuketWorld Affair
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“On days her spirits are low, like now, or between ballet seasons, when she has time to think about herself outside of the roles she plays, when she is not Odette in Swan Lake or Clara in The Nutcracker, she finds her feet reason enough to doubt the grace for which she is applauded when she spins on the tips of her toes.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoManilaHigh Society
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“I turned anti-American. I joined the European chorus of disdain for America. And because, like many other Filipinos, including practically every Philippine president from the time of Emilio Aguinaldo, my father was a true disciple of the Great American Dream, I turned against him, too, as I thumbed my nose at the Americanization of the world.”

FictionShort StoryPhilippinesAthensDiasporaManilaPan De Regla
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“He knew this was bound to happen but he kept himself at a safe distance, though he saw it come in every possible form, in trees felled to make way for new streets or cities, in chemicals that mimicked the human cells to invade the body, in every huff and puff of a CO2-emitting vehicle. What about the evil armies raised in the robotics classes of kindergarteners? What about the fake food with which the children had been fed? What about the devil winning the people’s vote on a ticket of broken promises, empty threats, and outright lies and a mission to send them straight to hell?”

FictionShort StoryEnd Of The WorldVenicePhilippinesFilipinoManilaOutbreakPanic On The VaporettoVenice Biennale
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“But politics has no space in Rob’s mind right now or ever. Neither do his migrant roots nor does the Philippines, with which his parents maintain a sentimental bond and to which, while he was growing up, they tried to endear him, speaking to him in a mix of Tagalog and Bicolano, of which he remembers not a word, except Mabuhay and magayon, salamat, too, and taking him as often as they could on vacations to famous Philippine beaches, fiestas, and other sites, including Christmas in Manila.”

FictionNew YorkShort StoryPhilippinesFilipinoManilaCountdown To A Kiss
Book:Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
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“The PBA was a symptom of the Philippines' basketball obsession, not the cause. I was thrilled to be witnessing the professional game from inside Alaska's locker room, but that wasn't what brought me to Manila in the first place. I was inspired by the idea that a Southeast Asian nation populated by five-foot-five men and mostly forgotten by America except for its political corruption, widespread prostitution, and violent Muslim separatist movement could be devoted to hoops with a passion unequaled by any other country. It was a nationwide tale of unrequited love. Forty million short men obsessed with basketball--they might as well have been a nation of blind art historians.”

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Book:Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball
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