Ferdinand Marcos

My life has been devoted to the upliftment of the Filipino by reestablishing his identity and dignity.

I would like to see whether my supposed successors can really operate the government without causing a crisis.

These statements about torture, about alleged misuse of power and things like that, insulted the Filipinos more than their leader because it was made to appear as if Filipinos would tolerate a leader who would torture his own people, who would utilize his executive prerogatives for abuses.

We have no quarrel with a policy that seeks to support human rights.

My friends in the opposition have forgotten that the constitution of the Philippines was amended in 1973 with their participation. The constitution mandates the administration, including the Batasan, or legislature, to convert slowly into a semiparliamentary form of government. The president in such a situation can issue decrees and edicts.

If it were true that special favors were given to some of these people because they are my cronies, then they should still be here, and they should be wealthy. But who are these cronies? If there be any cronies in government, point them out, and we will investigate.

We do not postpone the participation of the lower classes of our people in the profits of economic enterprise, and in other countries, they do postpone it. In the long run, I think our policy is better, and we stand by it.

In the Philippines, the host should always be willing to defer to the wishes of the guest.

To preserve our sovereign integrity, we must prove to them nobody need tell us how to hold a clean and democratic election.

Let us not be carried away by the undisguised agitations of leaders who virtually asked people to take the law into their own hands.

Let us not be so naive as to think that revolution is just a matter of social or economic discontent.

How can I wage political battle against a widow who does not mean anyone any harm except only the president himself?

We dare not supress thoughts, but when they are expressed through violence, like the idea that power comes from the barrel of a gun, they must be dealt with and met accordingly.

I will fight to the last breath, even though my family cowers in terror in the palace.

There is a standard joke in the family. Probably we should go into selling second-hand shoes.

I'll take my destiny, whatever that may be, but I'm going to fight for my dignity and my honor.

I am not afraid to go to jail.

President Reagan has no enemies in the Phillipines.

I am ashamed to run against a lady. It's demeaning, very degrading. I have always refused to argue with a lady.

To write our constitution is for the past, the present, and the future to come together all at once in one single motion, in one single heave, one single cry. For we correct the errors of the past and chart a new course for the future, based on the experience of the present.