"Nowadays men of science occupy a place of honor at research centers, laboratories and in factories producing medicines destined for human health, to overcome distances, concentrate energies, perfect investigation equipment so that it can function on earth and in space".
“Sports require discipline, and they teach children and young people a great deal about discipline, resistance, stability, perseverance and courage. They help build character and promote better health and physical and mental development”.
"We will establish, with the utmost urgency, a modern and efficient doping control laboratory that will cooperate with the countries of the region that require it.
"To speak of exercise and sports is not to speak of world and Olympic champions, it is to speak of daily, ongoing well-being, it is to speak of a good health, it is to speak of the capacity for study and work. To speak of physical education and sports is to speak of a science, a universal activity".
"Venezuela has the potential to become a model of socialist development with the resources formerly extracted by the multinationals from its rich nature and the efforts of it manual and intellectual workers. No foreign power shall determine its future. The people are the masters of their destiny and they march on to attain the highest levels of education, culture, health and full employment."
“(…) the smoking habit which is being reduced and will be reduced even more. Or at least anyone who smokes should do so at home or in some place where he or she is alone and not where 30, 40 or 50 people are gathered together”.
“When I speak of internal threats, I am only thinking about social or moral dangers than could affect our people and jeopardize their safety, education or health. It is well known how hard we have fought against the habit of smoking, and how it has been greatly reduced. We are similarly fighting against alcohol abuse, or the unfortunate practice of its consumption during pregnancy, which can lead to the birth of children with mental retardation or other serious physical disabilities”.
"Our firm unity and the nature of our social, economic and political system will make it possible to reach the goal we have set ourselves.We shall certainly be the first in the world in the health field, and its noble and human benefits will be within reach of all of our compatriots in health centers of excellence where they will not pay a penny".
“Without socialism, Cuban families could not watch their children grow up healthy, educated and skilled, with no fear of them being lured into drugs or crime, or killed at school by their own classmates.Without socialism, Cuba would not be, as it is today, the most solid barrier in the hemisphere against drug trafficking, something that benefits even American society”.
“I have always thought that education is one of the noblest and most human tasks to which anyone can dedicate their life. Without it there is no science, no art, no literature; there isn’t nor would there be today any production, nor economy, health nor wellbeing, quality of life, nor recreation, self-esteem, nor any social recognition possible.”