Martial Law Quotes

“I love my country, not my government.”
― Jesse Ventura

“Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people. You do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.”
― Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“The people have realized that Martial Law is not law. A regime not established by law is devoid of the attribute to dispense law. A regime which puts in a bunker the highest law in the land does not have the moral authority to say that nobody is above the law.”
― Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, If I Am Assassinated

“A regime that can suspend or abrogate the constitution and run the country on its whims and caprice should be ashamed of bringing on its lips the word "law". It is like prescribing a punishment for adultery after raping the country. It is like saying that Holy Quran is suspended nobody can escape from the Hadees.”
― Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, If I Am Assassinated

“The sanction of force stands behind the medley of personal orders and regulations of Martial Law. The sanction of the people's consent stands behind the hierarchy of laws. In one situation, the population is regimented into acquiescence. In the other, the population voluntarily establishes a contract with Parliament. For this reason, one is called a regime and the other, a government. Martial law rests on the sanction of force and not on the sanction of law.”
― Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, If I Am Assassinated

“Pumapasok na nga ang 1975. Sana'y isang maganda at payapa kahit di na masaganang bagong taon. Isang taon ng kaligtasan sa mga di-pagkakaunawaan, sakit, aksidente, raids, mass arrest, encounter, assassination, at mga pa-traidor ng kamatayan!”
― Lualhati Bautista, Dekada '70

“The presence of the military car strengthened him in his belief that he had done the right thing not to reveal himself. When the military comes into the picture, something else goes out the window.”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, Handling the Undead

“It seemed that freedom of expression had run amuck, or had run as far as the Government would allow it to go.”
― Kenneth Eade

“Seven floors below us, tanks were lined up on the streets. Soldiers gathered by in green uniforms and fur-trimmed caps. They held out their hands to cages of burning coal.”
― Magdalena McGuire, Home Is Nearby

“It was eleven days before Christmas and an orange-tailed carp swam in the bathtub, opening and closing the slick tunnel of its mouth.”
― Magdalena McGuire, Home Is Nearby

“General Iskander Mirza had shared with the high commissioner the view that democracy was unsuited to a country like Pakistan, even as plans were publicly laid out for general elections. The high commissioner reported that the president had told him of his intention to intervene “if the election returns showed that a post-electoral government was likely to be dominated by undesirable elements.”
― Husain Haqqani, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military

“Martial law verifies not only the failure of all state institutions; it also becomes the cause of the hegemony of the traitorous forces.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“Ang payapang pampang ay para lamang sa mga pangahas na sasalunga sa alimpuyo ng mga alon sa panahon ng unos.”
― Lualhati Bautista, Dekada '70

“You can learn all kinds of habits quickly under martial law.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Deadeye Dick

“Surely, many people could live normal lives during martial law. But, for the dreamer who sought a better world, the Philippines was a dangerous place. Is it not arrogant to dismiss the suffering of many simply because the squares enjoyed cleaner streets? Freedom protects the totality of the human being; order just makes things easier for those who are comfortable to begin with.”
― Lisandro E. Claudio, Basagan ng Trip: Complaints about Filipino Culture and Politics