“Our principles are the same as those of Baraguá. The empire should know that our Homeland can be turned to dust but the sovereign rights of the Cuban people are not negotiable.”
“A country that respects itself needs no US mercenaries, troops or military bases to fight drug-trafficking, to protect the people in case of natural disasters or to provide humanitarian cooperation to other peoples.”
“Our country is one of those which is most prepared to face up to obstacles, and not only has it shown evidence of great self-denial but also of solidarity with other peoples, as in the efforts made in Haiti before the earthquake, and the much greater efforts after it”.
“So much virtue has not allowed him to understand yet that 50 years of blockade and the crimes against our Homeland have not been able to bring our people to their knees. Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first”.
"Leaving aside the problems afflicting human beings today, our Homeland had the privilege of being the cradle of one of the most extraordinary thinkers born in this hemisphere: Jose Marti.
“It is no longer Cuba alone; there are now many peoples willing to fight to death for their own homeland”.
“The feats that our country is already capable of in the field of medicine, the enormous human capital it has developed: no other country in the world has these things. We have professionals willing to travel anywhere in the world, no matter how tough the conditions are there, and this is something no one else has.”
"Cuba’s attitude, and its response to the empire’s provocations, will be entirely peaceful, but we shall strike back with all the strength of our moral fortitude and we shall persist in our determination to fight to the death, against whatever act of belligerence of the restless and brutal empire that threatens us. Let no one for a minute forget the oath of Maceo, our Bronze Titan, when he said that whosoever attempts to take possession of Cuba shall conquer but the blood-soaked ground beneath his feet, if he does not first perish in battle".
"This is the Revolution, always looking for the best of the country, and with the best of the country preparing the best future for all Cubans. And so we go marching on with what we have. What we have is not perfect, we have received the inheritance of the past, an inheritance, in many ways negative, from the past".
"The singing of the anthem on that October 20 came at the same time as the feat of arms with which the Revolution achieved its first and most important victory over Spanish colonial troops. Bayamo’s surrender and Céspedes’ victorious entry marked the culmination of the act of rebellion begun on October 10 in La Demajagua sugar plantation which marked an turning point in the country’s history and gave birth, over the rubble of the first colonial redoubts, to the Cuban nation".