Francisco Luís Gomes

Francisco Luís Gomes (31 May 1829 – 30 September 1869) was a Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, political scientist and MP in the Portuguese parliament. A liberal by political orientation, Gomes represented Portuguese India in the Cortes Gerais (parliament) from 1861 to 1869. His outstanding contributions towards the fields of liberal philosophy and economics led him to be widely hailed as "The Prince of Intellectuals" in Europe

Quotes

• I was born in the East Indies, once the cradle of poetry, philosophy and history and now their tomb. I belong to that race which composed the Mahabharata and invented chess. But this nation which made codes of it's poems and formulated politics in a game is no longer alive! It survives imprisoned in it's own country. I asked for India liberty and light; as for myself, more happy than my countrymen, i am free - civis sum.
  • Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

• To men of liberal principles and to mankind it is perfectly indifferent whether India is called English or Brahmanical; what they cannot consent to is that the domination be exploitation instead of paternal tutelage.
  • Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

• The most powerful instruments of civilization are two - the Christian religion, and education.
  • Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

• Cholera and the Thug were born in the same country and in the same year. India is their native land.
  • Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

• Portugal converted a portion of India to the Catholic religion with the arms of her soldiers, with the blood of her martyrs, with the miracles of her saints, and with the fires of her Inquisition. Those who were vanquished in this struggle became Christians and Portuguese. England might imitate the example, except as regards force.
  • Quoted by Nishitha Desai in Lusotopie 2000, p. 474

A Liberdade da Terra e a Economia Rural da India Portuguesa (1862)

• We do not have monarchies by divine right, we do not lack influential and wealthy clergy, we do not want rich families between the crown and the people. What we are looking for is equal rights for the people, and uniform distribution of goods. It is time for democratizing the right to property.
  • A Liberdade da Terra e a Economia Rural da India Portuguesa (1862), Introduction. Quoted by Teotonio R. de Souza in Essays in Goan history (1989), p. 137

Os Brâmanes (1866)

• What use is equality in theory and in law, if it does not penetrate into our customs?
  • Os Brâmanes, p. 33

• Gambling is the contraction of all vices into one.
  • Os Brâmanes, p. 53

• All impartial men who are moved by justice and not by racialism want India to be ruled by Indians.
  • Os Brâmanes. Quoted by Sisir Kumar Das in History of Indian Literature: .1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy, p. 101

• It is said that the law of Christ governs European civilization. That is a lie. It shines on it's surface, but does not penetrate to it's entrails.
  • Os Brâmanes (1866). p. 107

• It is necessary that the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, eternal in their duration, be universal in their application, that being realized in institutions, law and customs, they spread over the surface of the globe and filter down to it's lowest strata. Only then shall the regeneration of man be accomplished.
  • Os Brâmanes (1866). Quoted by Teotonio R. de Souza in Essays in Goan history (1989), p. 137

• The revolt was the sepoy; the revolution would have been the people; the revolt was revenge; the revolution would have been the Idea; the revolt was the cruel Vishnu; the revolution would have been the mild Shiva.
  • Os Brâmanes, p. 147

• The Brahmins are a dynasty and a caste. Brahma is the sun and its rays Brahmins. The Brahmans left the mouth of God as the purest of their verbs, and the Sudras were born from the feet, as the vilest dust. It is not for the sudra or touch the outcast Brahmins, is not given as the roots touch the flowers, or the sole of the foot touching the mouth. The hands that touch the outcast Brahmin in print in him the indelible stamp of hell, the purity of the Brahmin is like the dew drop on the sheet, which only disappears forever when you touch him.
  • Os Brâmanes, p. 474

Essai sur la théorie de l'économie politique et de ses rapports avec la morale et le droit (1867)

• Ethics is the science of duties, and it's principles, perceived by reason, and revealed to us by conscience.
  • Essai sur la théorie de l'économie politique et de ses rapports avec la morale et le droit. (1867). Quoted by Teotonio R. de Souza in Indo-Portuguese history (1985), p. 210

Le marquis de Pombal (1869)

• The biography of a minister is bound to be a work of moral and political importance.
  • Le Marquis de Pombal, p. 5

• Being a good administrator and a bad politician, Pombal was not always a happy legislator.
  • Le Marquis de Pombal, p. 374

• His glory and greatness suffer from the wrongs he did his fellow men and from the methods he employed.
  • Le Marquis de Pombal, p. 377

Quotes about Gomes

• The thinkers or the wise live beyond their death. Theirs is an eternal youth, like trees forever blossoming. I wish to pay my respects to the thinker in him, as well as to the brilliance and immortality in the eternal youth of knowledge.
  • Júlio Dantas on Gomes' memory, as quoted in Essays in Goan history (1989) by Teotonio R. de Souza, p. 136
• Goan contemporaries of Francisco Luís Gomes, like the late Dr. Panduranga S.S. Pissurlencar of our own days were archivists of documents and had little critical work to their credit. Francisco Luís Gomes towered far above these scholars, displaying in his "Marquis the Pombal" in a sufficiently high degree all the qualities that are demanded of a competent historian - zest for truth, objectivity, critical acumen, accuracy and thoroughness.
  • GM Moraes on Gomes' memory, as quoted in Essays in Goan history (1989) by Teotonio R. de Souza, p. 136