“Cuba will not be intimidated!, Cuba will not recede!, the Revolution will not stop!, the Revolution will continue its unshakable path! That is our promise, not to those who died, because to die for the homeland is to live, but to the comrades who will always remain in our memories. They will always remain, not in the memory of a man, or men, but in the only memory that can never be erased: the memory in the heart of a people.”
“They will exist as long as our species does. Never before has the latter faced as serious a threat, owing to the combination of society's political underdevelopment and the fruits of technology, which appears limitless and whose capacity for self-destruction is beyond reason. Genocidal wars, climate change, hunger, thirst, inequality are everywhere we look.”
“Whatever our deeds could have been, no matter how meritorious they may seem, we must start by placing ourselves in an honest standpoint of not assuming we have comprehended everything that is to be learned, of not assuming that our points of view are infallible, and that all those who do not think exactly the same way are mistaken.”
“We must understand that we are living in a world where events are happening more rapidly than our awareness of just how unsustainable this world order is, and of the imperative and inevitable need to replace it with another, if humanity is to survive.
“Oppression, exploitation, inequality and injustice create people who, even at the agonizing moment of an unfair death, are capable of moving an empire and exciting the admiration of honorable people throughout the world.”
“I do not believe it is possible to offer youth an adequate education, in any country, without sports; and in the specific case of boys, without the inclusion of football. ”
"They can wield statistics of apparently positive growth but in the end things remain the same or even worsen in the Third World countries. Growth often rests on the accumulation of consumer goods that contribute nothing to true development and a better distribution of wealth. The truth is that after several decades of neoliberalism, the rich are becoming increasingly richer while the poor are both more numerous and increasingly poorer."
"From one year to the next the standard of living can be improved by raising knowledge, self-esteem and the dignity of people. It will be enough to reduce wastage and the economy will grow. In spite of everything, we will keep on growing as necessary and as possible".
“Differences related to the rich and poor countries, both between them and within them, have grown and deepened; in other words, there is an ever wider gap in the distribution of wealth, the greatest scourge of our era, resulting in poverty, hunger, ignorance, disease and unbearable pain and suffering for countless human beings”.
"I am proclaiming that our society will truly be an entirely new society. In this long distance race, we are already several laps ahead of our closest competitors. The merit lies with the empire for it presented us with an enormous threat and it was this challenge that spurred us on. Theirs is the merit and the only thing our noble, generous, brave and intelligent people have done is to take up that challenge; today it does so, with the force of a multitude of developed intellects".