80 Giuseppe Garibaldi Quotes that will help you to better understand the personality of one of the greatest military leaders and popular heroes of the Risorgimento.
General and patriot, Garibaldi was always in the front line of various military campaigns that would lead to the formation of a politically united Italy.
Due to his military and political achievements, Garibaldi along with Camillo Cavour, Vittorio Emanuele II, and Giuseppe Mazzini, is considered one of the “founding fathers of Italy”.
80 great Giuseppe Garibaldi Quotes you need to read:
#1. “I am going out of Rome. Whoever is willing to follow me will be received among my people. I ask nothing of them but a heart filled with love for our country. They will have no pay, no provisions, and no rest. I offer hunger, cold, forced marches, battles and death. Whoever is not satisfied with such a life must remain behind. He who has the name of Italy not only on his lips but in his heart, let him follow me.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#2. “Wherever we go, there Rome be” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#3. “My men! We are few, the enemy are many, more glorious will be the victory. Be steady, reserve your fire until they are close on you, then fire, and at them with the bayonet”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#4. “My mission is to noble to relinquish. I have sworn to Italy to accomplish it; my programme remains the same. I shall not sheathe my sword till Victory Emmanuel is King of all Italy”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#5. “Where there are brothers who fight for Italian freedom – there we must rush”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#6. “No more political colors, no more parties, no more discords! Italy one, under the King, who is the symbol of our regeneration, and the prosperity of our country”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#7. “Sicilians! I have brought you a body of brave men, who have hastened to reply to the heroic cry of Sicily. We, the survivors of the battles of Lombardy, are with you. All we ask is the freedom of our land, if we are united, the work will be short and easy. To arms, then!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#8. “From this point I release my companions from all obligations, leaving them free to return to private life. But I remind them that Italy must not remain in shame, and that it is better to die than to live in slavery to the foreigner”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#9. “Should we succeed, I shall be proud to adorn the crown of your majesty with a new, and perhaps its brightest jewel, on the sole condition that you will prevent your advisers from handing it over to foreigners”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#10. “To arms then! Bondage must cease! He who can seize a rifle and does not is a traitor! Italy with her children united will know how to reconquer the rank which Providence has assigned her amongst nations!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#11. “I am a Christian, as you are, yes, I am of that religion which has broken the bonds of slavery, and has proclaimed the freedom of men. The Pope, who oppresses his subjects, and is an enemy of Italian independence, is no Christian; he denies the very principles of Christianity; he is the Antichrist.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#12. “Permit me to bow reverently before the female liberators of my country, who are at the same time conferring a service on all humanity.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#13. “If Italy instead of being a Pantheon of memories and great works were a little less rich in art, but more robust, and if she had a strong and industrious citizens, she certainly would cease to be the slave of the foreigner, stronger and more industrious than herself.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#14. Look to Piedmont, as the hope and example of Italy – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#15. It is in vain that my enemies try to make me out an atheist, a blasphemer. I believe in God: I am of the religion of Christ, not of the religion of the Popes. I do not admit any intermediary between God and man. Priests have thrust themselves in, in order to make a shop of religion. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#16. To liberate woman from superstition, and to release her from the clutches of the priest, is now the question of life or of death to Italy – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#17. Here we make Italy or we die! – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#18. To protect animals against the cruelty of men, to feed them if they are hungry, to drink if they are thirsty, to come to their aid if exhausted by fatigue or disease, this is the most beautiful virtue of the strong towards the weak. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#19. Yes, the nations want to understand each other, and they want the brotherhood of all; the despots do not want it. Sacred law, irrevocable divine emanation of Christ, it is in the conscience of the whole world: it is at the top of the aspirations of the suffering races; and the hypocritical selfishness of the false worldly grandeurs suffocates it under its leaden cloak and raises with lies and corruption all the obstacles that stand in the way of its fulfillment. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#20. An honest brigand is my ideal – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#21. “The priests have changed the first of nations into one of the most abject and unhappy; and our beloved Italy has become the very lowest in the social scale; there hypocrites surround themselves with a profusion of luxury and voluptuousness… Not only do we aim at freeing our beloved Italy, but at freeing the entire world also from the incubus of the Papacy, which everywhere opposes education, protect ignorance, and is the nurse of vice” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#22. It is time for all peoples to prepare for the supreme battles. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#23. It is the people claimed to themselves, free of their arm and their conscience, which will have to create in Italy the new element of civil, moral and economic progress. But today it is necessary to create this Italy, which does not exist, nor can it exist, with the German in Venice and with the Pope in Rome. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#24. We ask for work, bread and mutual love. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#25. “I insist that men shall have the right to work out their lives in their own way, always allowing to others the right to work out their lives in their own way, too.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#26. “Hello! Valiant people of Mexico ! Oh! I envy your constancy and your skill in the liberation of your beautiful country from the mercenaries of despotism! Accept, courageous nephews of Columbus , from your brothers in Italy, a greeting to your redeemed freedom!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#27. “The work will make us free, the freedom will make us great.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#28. “I utter this word with deepest affection and from the very bottom of my heart.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#29. “To this wonderful page in our country’s history another more glorious still will be added, and the slave shall show at last to his free brothers a sharpened sword forged from the links of his fetters.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#30. “The human brotherhood is impossible with the priests.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#31. “If these hands, used to fighting, would be acceptable to His Holiness, we most thankfully dedicate them to the service of him who deserves so well of the Church and of the fatherland.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#32. “If a nation of the Devil appeared, fighting dictators and priests, I would join its ranks.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#33. “It was a question of overthrowing a monarchy to replace it, without will or capacity to do better for those poor peoples, and it was nice to see those tycoons of all despotisms using every kind of evil influence, corrupting the army, the navy, the court, the ministers. , using all the most subtle means to obtain the indecent intent.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#34. “The International is the Sun of the future.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#35. “I do not want to accept at any time the ugly, contemptuous and bad service of a priest, whom I consider an atrocious enemy of humanity and of Italy in particular.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#36. “A bold onset is half the battle.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#37. “Yes, young men, Italy owes to you an undertaking which has merited the applause of the universe. You have conquered and you will conquer still, because you are prepared for the tactics that decide the fate of battles.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#38. “The first necessity of Italy is harmony and social order, without which the unity of Italy is impossible. This day Providence has conferred that blessing upon you, and has made me its minister. The same Providence has also given you Victor Emmanuel, whom from this moment I will designate the father of our country.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#39. “In almost all times, peoples have been ruled by ignorance and violence – that is, by priests and soldiers.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#40. “The holiest of ties that exist in the human family is marriage. It connects two beings for life and makes them happy if they really deserve to be.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#41. “The day the peasants will be educated in the truth, tyrants and slaves will be impossible on Earth.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#42. Greece had its Leonidas , ancient Rome its Fabî, and modern Italy its Cairoli , with the difference that with Leonidas and Fabio the heroes were three hundred: with Enrico Cairoli , they were Seventy , decided to win or die for freedom Italian
#43. die with the pain of not seeing Trento and Trieste redeemed
#44. As bad as the Italian government may be, if there is no opportunity to overthrow it easily, I think it is better to stick to Dante’s great concept : “Making Italy even with the devil”.
#45. The history of the Papacy is the history of brigands.
#46. It is always the story of Socrates , of Christ and of Columbus! And the world always remains prey to miserable nothingnesses who know how to deceive it.
#47. Freedom does not fail to the willing
#48. I am made to break the balls of half humanity, and I swore it; Yup! I swore by Christ! To consecrate my life to the disturbance of others, and I have already achieved something, and it is nothing compared to what I hope, if they let me do it, or if they cannot prevent me from doing it.
#49. Free from the Alps to the Adriatic
#50. We have come to the land of refuge, and we owe the best of demeanor to the generous hosts; thus we will have deserved the consideration due to the persecuted misfortune.
#51. When I was able to say to slaves on the American coast of the ocean “You are free”, that was certainly the best moment of my life.
#52. Necessity does not submit to debate
#53. Be clean, valiant, contemptuous of death, generous, and certainly you will have not only the applause, but the affection of beauty!
#54. Courage disdains being guided by cowardice.
#55. The Rulers are generally bad , because of bad origin and mostly thieves. They, with few exceptions, have the roots of their family tree in the dunghill of violence and crime.
#56. Woman was appointed by Providence to take part in the destruction of despotism and superstition.
#57. Men in misfortune are all brothers, and the cause of the oppressed peoples is one. Let us unite therefore, and our voice may sound powerful to shake the thrones of all despots.
#58. The workers’ societies have benefited Italy a lot, they must do a great deal for the future; work is virtue; work is freedom; blessed are those who work!
#59. Here the destinies of Italy are decided. A battle won under Capua will give us Italy in our hands.
#60. “Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery … you have the duty to educate the people … educate them to be Christians – educate them to be Italians… Viva Italia! Viva Christianity!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#61. “Most of the wars, and the bloodiest, were and are fomented by priests.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#62. “Oh! Rome! Home of the soul! You are truly the only one! The eternal! Above all human greatness even today … under any degradation! Your resurgence can only be a catastrophe to turn the world upside down!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#63. “My dear Victor Hugo, The title you assigned to me in Bordeaux is sufficient for a whole existence devoted to the sacred cause of humanity, of which you are the first apostle.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#64. “Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#65. “Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#66. “You, too, women, cast away all the cowards from your embraces; they will give you only cowards for children, and you who are the daughters of the land of beauty must bear children who are noble and brave.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#67. “The papacy, being the most harmful of all secret societies, ought to be abolished.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#68. “The republic is the government of honest people, and proof of this has been seen in all ages. They last while virtuous, and fall when corrupt and full of vices.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#69. “True Republicans — you made the sacrifice not only of life, but of political convictions. Like Dante republicans — as he said: “Let’s make Italy even with the devil!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#70. “Man created God, not God created Man.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#71. “I ask the representatives of the nation if, as a man, I will ever be able to shake hands with the one who made me a foreigner in Italy.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#72. “The sword is a crime, as the death penalty is an abuse, as the conquest is an insult.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#73. “L’Europe ! Where those who toil dies of hunger and the idle swim in abundance and lust, where few families dominate the nations and keep them in a perpetual state of war with the high-sounding words of patriotism, loyalty, honor of the flag, military glory, where half of the people is a slave and the other half does justice, beating the slaves when they dare to complain!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#74. “In obedience to the cause of liberty alone did the Italians of Montevideo take up arms, and not with any views of gain or advancement.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#75. “I have passed my life in the hope of seeing populations ennobled, and to the extent of my power have championed always and everywhere their rights, but sadly confess that I have partly lived in a false hope… Still I never despair of the ultimate amelioration of mankind, albeit I am deeply grieved at the slowness of its coming”. – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#76. “Sardinia deserves special attention, if Italy does not wish to renounce her position as a maritime power. Fertile and rich in minerals and forests, I believe it is the best portion of Italian soil. Nevertheless, Sardinia is a desert, its population languish in misery, and the Government does nothing to relieve it.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#77. “Whatever may be the march of existing circumstances, Italians must neither lay aside their arms, nor be discouraged. They ought, on the contrary, to increase in number their ranks, to testify to Europe, that, guided by their King, Victor Emmanuel, they are ready to face again the vicissitudes of war.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#78. “I have nothing to do with men or political parties; my country, and nothing but my country, is my object.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#79. “Long live the Republic!” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
#80. “Lastly, we must make it apparent to all that, while we respect the houses of other people, we are determined to be masters in our own house, whether the powers of the Earth like it or not.” – Giuseppe Garibaldi
Hope these 80 Giuseppe Garibaldi Quotes helped you to better understand the personality of one of the most important leaders of the Risorgimento.