Rigoberta Menchu Quotes

Quotes about:

• Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Respect, Peace, Native American

  257 Copy quote

• This world's not going to change unless we're willing to change ourselves.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  World, This World, Willing To Change

  173 Copy quote

• We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Zoos, Past, Racism

  216 Copy quote

• What I treasure most in life is being able to dream.
  During my most difficult moments and complex situations
  I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Beautiful, Dream, Treasure

  161 Copy quote

• I am like a drop of water on a rock. After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark, and I leave my mark in many people's hearts.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Heart, Rocks, People

  162 Copy quote

• ...instead of giving a rifle to somebody, build a school; instead of giving a rifle, build a community with adequate services. Instead of giving a rifle, develop an educational system that is not about conflict and violence, but one that promotes respect for values, for life, and respect for one's elders. This requires a huge investment. Yet if we can invest in a different vision of peaceful coexistence, I think we can change the world, because every problem has a nonviolent answer.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Educational, School, Thinking

  121 Copy quote

• The people are the only ones capable of transforming society.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  People, Inspire, Transforming

  65 Copy quote

• We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Knees, Deny, Chains

  81 Copy quote

• I resolutely believe that respect for diversity is a fundamental pillar in the eradication of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. There is no excuse for evading the responsibility of finding the most suitable path toward the elimination of any expression of discrimination against indigenous peoples.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Respect, Xenophobia, Believe

  96 Copy quote

• ... only those of us who carry our cause in our hearts are willing to run the risks.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Running, Heart, Risk

  Rigoberta Menchú (2009). “I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Second Edition)”, p.286, Verso Books

  77 Copy quote

• We have learned that change cannot come through war. War is not a feasible tool to use in fighting against the oppression we face. War has caused more problems. We cannot embrace that path.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Peace, War, Fighting

  91 Copy quote

• The human being is to be respected and defended, not protected like a bird or a river.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Rivers, Bird, Humans

  Source: www.indians.org

  22 Copy quote

• It is said that our indigenous ancestors, Mayas and Aztecs, made human sacrifices to their gods. It occurs to me to ask: How many humans have been sacrificed to the gods of Capital in the last five hundred years?

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Sacrifice, Years, Lasts

  Source: www.indians.org

  9 Copy quote

• I think that nonviolence is one way of saying that there are other ways to solve problems, not only through weapons and war. Nonviolence also means the recognition that the person on one side of the trench and the person on the other side of the trench are both human beings, with the same faculties. At some point they have to begin to understand one another.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  War, Mean, Thinking

  66 Copy quote

• There is not one world for man and one for animals, they are part of the same one and lead parallel lives.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Animal, Men, World

  Rigoberta Menchú (2009). “I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Second Edition)”, p.22, Verso Books

  56 Copy quote

• The media and politics have never allowed our people to speak through them. The absolute marginalization of the indigenous peoples is a fact, as is sophisticated militarization. These have been the most significant ingredients in the silent war.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  War, Media, People

  Source: www.indians.org

  17 Copy quote

• I wish that a conscious sense of peace and a feeling of human solidarity would develop in all peoples.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Feelings, Wish, Conscious

  Rigoberta Menchu's Nobel Lecture in Oslo, Norway, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 1992.

  60 Copy quote

• The Mayas, our grandparents, always said; every human being occupies a small piece of time. Time itself is much longer, and because of this they always said that we must care for this earth while we are on it because it will be part of our children and the children of our grandchildren. They know that life is short, that it can end so soon, and that if one gets lost on the way, others will come to take their place.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Children, Life Is Short, Grandparent

  Source: www.indians.org

  23 Copy quote

• I would get up in the morning and I would say, "How am I going to bother them today?"

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Morning, Today, Get Up

  50 Copy quote

• The culture of death is imposed by economic and political interests, the arrogance of power, corruption. I blame the first world for having taken our riches for so many years. I am speaking of the superpowers that dominate the life of the world. More concretely, the World Bank, the IMF. Those that have caused and tolerated the death of our people, those responsible for the plundering of the third world. Silence is also part of repression.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Taken, Years, People

  Source: www.indians.org

  43 Copy quote

• To be a light to others you will need a good dose of the spiritual life. Because as my mother used to say, if you are in a good place, then you can help others; but if you're not well, then go look for somebody who is in a good place who can help you.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  God, Mother, Spiritual

  51 Copy quote

• unless a religion springs from within the people themselves, it is a weapon of the system.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Spring, People, Religion

  Rigoberta Menchú (2009). “I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Second Edition)”, p.157, Verso Books

  52 Copy quote

• In my opinion, peace has not come to America, to Nicaragua, or to El Salvador. A hungry people is a people without peace. If the demands of the people are not met, what kind of peace are we talking about?

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Talking, America, People

  Source: www.indians.org

  21 Copy quote

• This is why Indians are thought to be stupid. They can't think, they don't know anything, they say. But we have hidden our identity because we needed to resist, we wanted to protect what governments have wanted to take away from us.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Stupid, Thinking, Government

  Rigoberta Menchú (2009). “I, Rigoberta Menchú: an Indian woman in Guatemala”, Verso Books

  44 Copy quote

• Today the governments of Latin America should be ashamed of not havingexterminated the indigenous, at the end of the twentieth century, because weexist at the end of this century. We are not myths of the past, ruins in thejungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims ofintolerance and racism.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Zoos, Latin, Past

  52 Copy quote

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