"The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets. Those who have you, O Liberty, do not know. You. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you"
About this Quote
Then comes the sharper cut: those who have liberty "do not know" it. Marti is not praising innocence; he is indicting complacency. Liberty, once secured, becomes invisible infrastructure, like clean water or a stable roof. The privileged mistake their condition for nature, and when they speak of freedom, it can sound like rhetoric unmoored from risk. He turns that indictment inward toward the dispossessed too: those without freedom "should not speak of you, but win you". It is a provocation against performative lament and empty oratory. Marti is asking for a politics of agency, not commentary.
Context matters. Marti wrote as a Cuban nationalist in exile, organizing against Spanish colonial rule, fundraising, publishing, plotting, and ultimately dying in the fight. The line reads like a recruitment poster disguised as poetry: visceral enough to sting, severe enough to discipline, and urgent enough to convert longing into action.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Marti, Jose. (2026, February 18). The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets. Those who have you, O Liberty, do not know. You. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-wretch-who-lives-without-freedom-feels-like-85970/
Chicago Style
Marti, Jose. "The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets. Those who have you, O Liberty, do not know. You. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-wretch-who-lives-without-freedom-feels-like-85970/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets. Those who have you, O Liberty, do not know. You. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-wretch-who-lives-without-freedom-feels-like-85970/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.















