“[…] what truly ennobles Céspedes is not only the decision he adopted, steadfast and resolute in rising up in arms, but the act with which he accompanied that decision, that of granting freedom to his slaves at the same time as proclaiming his opinion about slavery, his readiness for the abolition of slavery in our country, […]”
“Let us follow the example of our predecessors. Let us do what Bolivar, San Martin, Artigas, O'Higgins, Sucre, Juarez, Morazan and Marti would have done in similar circumstances, so that our America will hold a dignified place in a world in which we all have a right to live.”
"It is not an easy thing to do in the midst of today’s problems complexities in the world today. It is difficult to maintain that inflexible opinion, maintain this inflexible independence, but we will maintain it. This Revolution was not imported from anywhere. It is a genuine product of this country. Nobody told us how we must do it, and we have carried it out. (APPLAUSE) And nobody will have to tell us how we must continue to carry it out, and we will continue to carry it out. We have learned to write history and we will continue to write it. Let no one doubt it".
[…] “History points out and indicates that if all of us taking part in this struggle fulfill our duty, one day we shall come back to our homeland not only with the satisfaction of having cooperated to ensure Angola’s revolution and independence, but also to the independence of Namibia, the defeat of fascism, the disappearance of Apartheid. We would have contributed to the independence and safety and dignity of all the peoples of Africa”.
“Máximo Gómez. Humble son of this people, knew how to transform himself into the outstanding and cherished son of the Cuban people by the right earned through his struggle for the independence of Cuba, to which he contributed his might and his machete, his military genius and his valour, a remarkable political talent and profound revolutionary philosophy.”
“…work, organize and put into action the spirit of creation, the enthusiasm of Cuban women, so that Cuban women, in this stage of the revolutions, will see to the disappearance of the last shred of discrimination; and so that Cuban women, because of their virtues and merits, will take the place corresponding them in the country’s history.”
“Those of us who have read about the history of the Americas, who have meditated more than once about it, from the time when we acquired the first political notions and learned the first concepts about what this continent was like, its origin and its history, have found it very difficult to understand why our America has reached the present status; (…) why have we lived so estranged from each other; why have we lived so indifferently to those who many a time have been separated from us only by a river, or an imaginary line, or a mountain, or an inlet, when we all were essentially o
“Revolution is the sense of the historical moment; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and freedom; it is being treated and treating others like human beings; it is emancipating ourselves, by ourselves and with our very own efforts; it is challenging the dominant powerful forces within and outside of the social and national arena; it is defending the values one believes in at the cost of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is fighting with audacity, intelligence and realism; it is never telling a lie or violating e
“I must admit that Marx was right when he sketched out the idea that only when a truly rational, just and equitable social regime exists on this earth, will humankind have left prehistory behind.”
The Revolution is the most complex and the most convulsive of all historical events. It is an infallible law of all revolutions, and history teaches that no true revolution can ever fail to be an extraordinarily convulsive process. If it is not, it is not a revolution.