“The middle classes are playing a very important role when certain national and international situations arise. The middle classes are dangerous for the current prevailing order, because they have knowledge.”
“On the other hand, I can’t help but think of a world where over one-third of the population have no access to medical care or the basic medicines required to ensure health. And this situation will be aggravated as climate change, and water and food shortage worsen in a globalized world where the population grows, the forests disappear, the arable land decreases, the air is more polluted, and the human species inhabiting it –which emerged less than 200 thousand years back, that is, 3.5 billion years after the first forms of life on the planet—is running the real risk of annihilation.”
“We do not feel embarassed for saying it because, in contrast to such shame, we are proud to be able to say that today no embassy is ruling our people! Our people are being ruled by the people!”
“There are very profound things that our people hold dear. We are firmly convinced that there are many words and many concepts that must be redefined, if we truly want to advance towards a worthy future. The past cannot be the future, and to conceive of a future society genuinely requires rethinking many concepts that are prehistoric.”
“The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises. The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero”.
“And what does the Cuban Revolution teach? That revolution is possible, that the peoples can make it; that in the contemporary world there are no forces capable of preventing the liberation movement of the peoples.”.
"Todas las batallas las hemos librado siempre y las hemos ganado con el apoyo del pueblo".
"I believe in the mobilization and the struggle of the peoples! I believe in the idea of justice! I believe in truth! I believe in man!".
"You accuse Cuban revolutionaries of being torturers. I seriously urge you to find a single one of the more than a thousand prisoners captured during the Bay of Pigs fighting who had been tortured. I was there, not in some protected position at a distant general command post. I personally captured a number of prisoners with the help of some assistants; I walked in front of armed squads who were still lying under cover of the forest’s vegetation, paralyzed by the presence of the Chief of the Revolution.
"When we proclaimed the Land Reform Law, Eisenhower decided what had to be done (...) Because of that hasty decision, our sugar quota was suspended in December 1960, and later redistributed among other producers in this and other regions of the world as punishment. Our country became blockaded and isolated.