Former Uruguayan President José Mujica (2010-2015) is a star for millions of people. But he is also a star since there are two films that tell part of his life: La noche de 12 años, about his days in prison as a Tupamaro guerrilla, and the documentary El Pepe, a supreme life, led by Serbian Emir Kusturica. In addition, he wrote a book: A black sheep in power.
When he was 83 years old, he decided to retire from politics because he already considered himself older and wanted to live without so many responsibilities. This was announced at a traditional New Year's Eve barbecue, at a dinner where he invited all his friends, whoever they are (neighbors, politicians, journalists, etc.). He wants to follow politics closely so as not to leave his colleagues "alone", but from a prudent distance and without having active positions ... because according to him, "biology rules".
José Mujica or “Pepe” Mujica may have been the most beloved president on the planet, but he does not say goodbye to die… he says goodbye to live! Life has stages and he has already given what he could for others, now they have to think about himself. He has always said wise phrases that flood the heads of his followers and all over social networks.
Next we are going to share with you some of those phrases that he said and that have conquered both the world and the hearts of millions of people. These phrases make it clear what his thinking is about life, but also about politics.
Pepe Mujica and his beloved phrases
- The poor are not those who have little. They are the ones who want a lot. I do not live with poverty, I live with austerity, with renunciation. I need little to live.
- Yes, I am tired, but this does not stop until the day they take me in a drawer or when I am a dirty old man.
- Sometimes you feel that you are playing a role that no longer motivates you. You are in the way, like an old tree that does not allow you to see those below.
- When I was young I thought the fight was for power. Now I see that the history of social and political fighters is a pile of broken glass, of which bits remain: 8 am, labor rights, retirement ... I feel like a brother to all that.
- Power does not change people, it only reveals who they really are.
- The inevitable is not whined. The inevitable must be faced.
- Yes, a world with a better humanity is possible. But perhaps today the first task is to save life.
- I come from the south, and as such, I unequivocally charge with the millions of poor compatriots in Latin America, our common homeland.
- The dirty economy, drug trafficking, fraud, fraud and corruption are contemporary plagues sheltered by that anti-value, the one that maintains that we are happier if we enrich ourselves no matter what.
- We were born only to consume and consume and when we cannot, we carry frustration, poverty and even self-marginalization and self-exclusion.
- We occupy the temple with the god Mercado, he organizes our economy, politics, habits, life and even finances the appearance of happiness in card installments.
- When I had a mattress I was happy. Or a cup of water. Or if he could urinate. I found out that we make a hell of a lot of trouble for nothing.
- I would like to have something like this for Latin America, that we were with contradictions and problems and this, but that they had built that being. Surely the project of the European economic community has many flaws, but it has never experienced such a long period of peace.
- It must not only be considered for reasons of sentiment but also for social conscience. I would like feminism to never forget that there are social classes and that the first thing is to help the bottom of society.
- I don't use that word because they use it for a sweep and a scrub. They are populists in Nicaragua and those who vote in Germany for the right half neo-Nazis. Then it is anything. I draw this conclusion: everything that annoys, with which one does not agree, is populist.
- What is the legacy of a guy in the universe? We are less than a louse. The legacy is having lived with the handle, with successes and errors. Succeeding is not having money, it is getting up every time one falls.
- I am not poor, I am sober, light luggage, live with just enough so that things do not steal my freedom.
- I believe that man learns much more from adversity, provided it does not destroy him, than from prosperity. You learn with what you live, not with what they count on. You learn more from pain and not from triumphs.
- It is not nice to legalize marijuana, but it is worse to give people away to drug traffickers. The only healthy addiction is that of love.
- After the death penalty, loneliness is one of the harshest punishments. When I was very young I read a lot. And in those lonely years I ruminated. Rethinking things and thinking about it is not the same as reading. It is rebuilding.
- Gay marriage is older than the world. We had Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great. They say it's modern and it's older than all of us. It is an objective reality. Exists. Not to legalize it would be to torture people uselessly.
- By legalizing and intervening, it is possible to make many women back down in their decision, especially those in the most humble sectors or those who are alone.
- I think they are using us as guinea pigs. Why is Phillip Morris paying so much attention to such a small country? I'm sure they sell more cigarettes in any neighborhood in New York than in Uruguay.
- I don't use that word because they use it for a sweep and a scrub. They are populists in Nicaragua and those who vote in Germany for the right half neo-Nazis. Then it is anything. I draw this conclusion: everything that annoys, with which one does not agree, is populist.
- What is it that draws the attention of the world? What do I live with little, a simple house, that I walk in an old car, those are the news? So this world is crazy because it is surprised by the normal.
