"Without socialism, Cuba would not have become, without actually trying, an example for many people in the world, and the loyal and constant voice for the most deserving causes".

"Our independence, our principles and our social achievements we will defend with honor to the last drop of blood, if we are attacked!"

"From day one of the revolutionary victory our country has never set obstacles to the legal emigration of Cuban citizens to the United States or to any other country. At the time of the triumph of the Revolution many people in Cuba, like in the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America, who endured poverty and underdevelopment, wanted to migrate to seek for better paid jobs and better living conditions than they could find in their countries subjected to centuries of exploitation and plundering. Until 1959, an extremely limited number of visas were issued to Cubans. After that, for obvious reasons, the gates were wide opened and that is how an important number of Cubans began settling in the United States".

“Every day, our people will possess greater experience and knowledge in many fields. Above all, they must be an example of full social justice, more perfect and profound every day, and they must share their experience with the rest of the world. Our strength will come from our ideas, and the strength of our ideas will come, above all, from our example.”

“We managed to continue forward, when a whole sector of the progressive world born of the profound social revolution that took place at the beginning of last century, in spite of its epic achievements, collapsed before its old capitalist adversary. It was unable to overcome its own errors and successfully confront the anachronistic ideology and dirty tricks of the oppressive and exploitative system that it had set to overcome in order to change the world.”

“No one has more faith than we do in our country, in the Revolution, in what it has achieved, in the virtues of our people”.

“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.”

“A nuclear world war almost broke out because of the empire’s stubbornness and it is still stubborn. They just never learn that it is impossible to destroy this Revolution defended by this people, (APPLAUSE) and not only because of the physical strength of our fighters but because of their moral forces, because of their willingness to win or die, because of their willingness to defend an historic, revolutionary process which has given us all that we have today.”

“The Revolution gave the people the property of their own country. What the Revolution eradicated was the property of the basic means of production, of the financial institutions and of other crucial services which were in the hands of those who plundered and exploited the people --and made fortunes on the workers’ sweat-- or that only served the rich and the privileged, leaving the poor and the black people out”.

“Revolutionary Cubans, in the thick of the Battle of Ideas we are waging and embroiled in the arduous and heroic defence of our Homeland, the Revolution and Socialism, on a day like today we are rendering a special tribute to our two great heroes, with a firm, unshakeable decision: We shall all be like Maceo and Che”

The greatest desire of all Cuban revolutionaries is for every new generation to be better prepared for the huge challenges that the future brings for our country and all of humankind. Every minute of your lives, you must be fully aware of the great responsibility that the country and the Revolution have entrusted in you: for the moment, to study hard and fulfill your duty with honor.

“It seems to me that one of the best things that is being done in our country is the revolution we are carrying out in education, which includes a general comprehensive education, that includes not just the professional knowledge a person must possess but the minimum of cultural knowledge in order to possess an artistic culture, a general culture and a political culture.”