“The world will change; that is unavoidable. But our duty is to help it change, the sooner the better, without waiting for the crisis to act as a big bang that is still propelling stars to infinity.”

“Our country has created an enormous human potential, because paper was not used for gossip magazines, or for advertising; our resources were not invested in such things. Instead they were invested in training doctors, so that we became the country with the highest per capita index of doctors in the world; we invested in training teachers, so that we would have the highest per capita index of professors and teachers in the world; physical education and sports teachers were trained, who devote themselves to comprehensive education and training, not professional sport, so that we have achieved the highest per capita index of all the countries in the world; perhaps in the number of researchers and scientific personnel, and other fields, we are also among the top few.”

“The offensive of the masses and ideas unleashed in our country is something unprecedented. […] In no era, in no other location has such a battle been begun on the terrain of ideas and ethics between such a powerful country and the people of one small island found  just 90 miles away from its shores.”
“ Since January 1, 1959, Cuba has been, is, and will continue to be free forever. Its capacity for struggle and resistance, its profound political culture, and the awareness and courage of its people demonstrate that the Cuban Revolution, with its devotion to justice and its noble objectives, has created such a spirit of solidarity and heroism and has become so deeply rooted in the heart of the homeland that it has been rendered invincible.”

“The world, ever more ungovernable, will fight until hegemony and the subjugation of peoples become totally unsustainable.”

"We will never renounce the principles we made ours in the struggle to bring all justice to our homeland by putting an end to the exploitation of man by man, inspired by the history of mankind and by the enlightened theoreticians and promoters of a socialist system of production and distribution of wealth, the only system capable of creating a truly fair and human society Marx, Engels, and later, Lenin."

"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".

“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”.

“Once and for all, they crushed the absurd idea that the suffering endured, and the blood and tears spilled throughout almost a hundred years of struggle for independence and justice against Spanish colonialism and its slavery-based model of exploitation, and later against imperialist domination and the corrupt and bloody governments imposed on Cuba by the United States, were to serve for the rebuilding of a neocolonialist, capitalist and bourgeois society.We did it at the exact and precise moment in history, not a minute before and not a minute later, and we were daring enough to attempt it”.

Speech delivered by Fidel Castro, on the 40th Anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution

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

“In the last few days we have seen the hasty establishment of the basis, the concept, the true purposes, the spirit and the conditions for such a war. No one would be able to affirm that it was not something thought out well in advance, something that was just waiting for its chance to materialize. Those who after the so-called end of the cold war continued a military build-up and the development of the most sophisticated means to kill and exterminate human beings were aware that the large military investments would give them the privilege to impose an absolute and complete dominance over the other peoples of the world. The ideologists of the imperialist system knew very well what they were doing and why they were doing it.”

“Ideas are and always will be the most important weapon of all. Our experience has taught us that if one day our country were to be attacked and even occupied by powerful forces, each and every man or woman, wherever they may be, can be an army. When a combatant or group of combatants are left cut off or isolated, they can and should assume responsibility for their own actions and continue fighting”.