“I believe this to be a turning point in our history: the tyranny has been overthrown. The rejoicing is immense. But there is still much to be done. We mustn't fool ourselves into believing that the future will be easy; everything may be more difficult in the future. Telling the truth is the first duty of all revolutionaries. Deceiving the people, raising false hopes, always brings the worst consequences, and I feel it's necessary to warn everyone against over-optimism.”
Quotes
"We will know how to resist any aggression, but that we will know how to overcome any aggression, and that again we would have no other dilemma than that with which we began the revolutionary struggle: that of freedom or death".
“No revolutionary government that comes to power wants to have international conflicts. What it wants is devoting itself to the solution of its own problems; what it wants is implementing a platform, as do governments really interested in the progress of their countries”.
“If at other times in our history Cuban revolutionaries had been discouraged by difficulties, there would not be today an independent country named Cuba”.
"No people become revolutionary by force. Those who sow ideas have no need to suppress the people ever. Weapons in the hands of that same people are used to fight those abroad who try to take away their achievements".
“We carry the revolutionary spirit in our soul and a revolutionary is not someone who insults but someone who knows that he or she bears the truth and is capable of sustaining it and defending it”.
"We revolutionaries do not work for money. There are other things in life worth much more than money, and there are things that cannot be bought for all the money in the world. We do not have much financial capital but we do have a great human capital".
"In my view, it is remarkable about the history of our Revolution that it has resisted all attempts to destroy it, and in this sense, that day in which the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were founded was truly historical".
"What is the ethic of a revolutionary? All revolutionary thinking begins with a bit of ethics; some values acquired from parents, others from teachers, but no one is born with these ideas. No one is born with the gift of speech, either; someone has to teach us to speak. The influence of the family is huge".
"(...) ethical values are essential. Without ethical values, there can be no revolutionary values".
“The education of the cadres will be the most important task to be mastered by the revolutionary parties. There will never be easy solutions; strictness and exigency must prevail. Let’s guard ourselves especially from those that throw down the drain the people’s principles and dreams together with the dirty water.”
"The duty of this new generation of revolutionary men and women is becoming an example of modest leaders, studious and tireless fighters for socialism. In the barbaric era of consumer societies, to overcome the capitalist production system that fosters and promotes selfish interests among human beings is, no doubt, a difficult challenge".