“I have always lived, and I will continue to live quietly, because I know how to defend the rights of my people with dignity, as well as the honor of the small, poor and weak nations, and I have always been moved by a profound sense of justice. I am a revolutionary and I will die being one.”
Quotes
"(...) cannot renounce my convictions, as I feel that the more candid we are in telling the truth the more possibilities there will be to be heeded and respected".
“Racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia are not naturally instinctive reactions of the human beings but rather a social, cultural and political phenomenon born directly of wars, military conquests, slavery and the individual or collective exploitation of the weakest by the most powerful all along the history of human societies.”
“Today, of course, the main concern of our people and the planet as a whole is the preservation of peace, because without peace, the world would be headed towards a fatal abyss. And we will struggle for peace with the same courage, honor and dignity as we always have”.
“[…]They should know by now that, as far as the Cuban people is concerned, the ideals that inspire freedom, dignity, love of one’s homeland, its identity, its culture and the strictest sense of justice that human beings can conceive of are more valuable than anything on Earth..”
“They were born 83 years apart. The first was already a legendary figure when the second entered the world. If one of them proclaimed that whoever tried to take possession of Cuba would have to gather up the dust of its soil soaked in blood, if he did not perish in the struggle, the other soaked Bolivian soil with his blood trying to prevent the empire from taking over America”.
“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”
“If I were to look for a word that was synonymous with austerity, integrity, a spirit of sacrifice and ethics, that word would be Che”.
General Antonio Maceo, Cubans today, brought up on your immortal example, would like to have shared with you the honour of being with you that glorious day when you said to the representative of Spanish colonial power: We want no peace without independence.
“Unity, dignity and rational and solidarity-based integration are the only possible means to confront the common challenges of the globalized, unequal and discriminatory world that threatens us all.”
"This only to point out that without an educational revolution, a truly profound educational revolution, injustice and inequality will continue to prevail, even when all of the material needs of the country’s citizens have been satisfied".
“It is ideas that light up the world, it is ideas, and when I say ideas, I mean ideas that are just, ideas that can bring peace to the world, and put an end to the grave danger of war, or put an end to violence. That is why we talk about the battle of ideas.”