A Quote by – Emiliano Zapata

Topic of this Quote:

Author Name:

Emiliano Zapata

Born As:

Emiliano Zapata Salazar

Other Names:

Born:

08 Aug 1879

Died:

10 Apr 1919 
Quoted in Liberation Theologies in North America and Europe‎ - 1979, by Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, p. 281

This is sometimes misattributed to the more modern revolutionary, Che Guevara, and to Dolores Ibárruri ("La Pasionaria"), especially in Spain, where she popularized it in her famous speeches during the Spanish Civil War, to José Martí, and to Aeschylus who is credited with a similar declaration in Prometheus Bound: "For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life."

Spanish variants:
¡Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!
As quoted in Operación Cobra : historia de una gesta romántica (1988) by Alvaro Pablo Ortiz and Oscar Lara

Variant translations:
Men of the South! It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!
With an extension, as quoted in Timeless Mexico - 1944 by Hudson Strode, p. 259
I would rather die standing than live on my knees!
It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!
I prefer to die standing than to live forever kneeling.
Prefer death on your feet to living on your knees.