Fidel Castro Quotes

Ignorance is the root of many ills. Knowledge must be the fundamental ally of nations that aspire, despite all their tragedies and problems, to become truly emancipated, to build a better world.

~ Fidel Castro

A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.

~ Fidel Castro

The ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger.

~ Fidel Castro

I’m not attached to anything.I’m attached to what it feels it's my duty, to do my duty.I think that I will die with the boots on.

~ Fidel Castro

If people call me Christian, not from the standpoint of religion but from the standpoint of social vision, I declare that I am a Christian.

~ Fidel Castro

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them - neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

~ Fidel Castro

I know that imprisonment will be harder for me than it has ever been for anyone, filled with cowardly threats and hideous cruelty. But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.

~ Fidel Castro

There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk barefoot, so that others can travel in luxurious cars? Why should some live for thirty-five years, so that others can live for seventy years? Why should some be miserably poor, so that others can be hugely rich? I speak on behalf of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak on the behalf of the sick who have no medicine, of those whose rights to life and human dignity have been denied.

~ Fidel Castro

...quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.

~ Fidel Castro

The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.

~ Fidel Castro

We have always been prepared to negotiate with the U.S. government everything that has to do with bilateral relations, on a basis of the strictest mutual respect for the sovereign rights of each country. We will never try to ask the government of the United States to change its economic and political system.

~ Fidel Castro

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing - that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world - is what I wish for all.

~ Fidel Castro

I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating... because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition.

~ Fidel Castro

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

~ Fidel Castro

At the age of 6, a teacher full of ambitions, who taught in the small public school of Biran, convinced my family that I should travel to Santiago de Cuba to accompany my older sister who would enter a highly prestigious convent school. Including me was a skill of that very teacher from the little school in Biran.

~ Fidel Castro

Experience acquired in the heroic battle against Batista's tyranny showed that the enemy, no matter what his strength, could not defeat the Cuban people.

~ Fidel Castro

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.

~ Fidel Castro

Chinese combatants, men and women, inheritors of a millennial culture, are people of uncommon intelligence and an invincible spirit of struggle.

~ Fidel Castro

Even Gaddafi's adversaries assure us that he stood out for his intelligence as a student he was expelled from high-school for his anti-monarchic activities. He managed to enroll in another high-school and later graduated in law at the University of Benghazi at the age of 21.

~ Fidel Castro

Our position is that we do not accept conditions of any kind which may affect the independence and sovereignty of our country just with the view to solve economic problems existing between the United States and Cuba.

~ Fidel Castro

The people of Egypt are an intelligent people with a glorious history who left their mark on civilization.

~ Fidel Castro

Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.

~ Fidel Castro

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

~ Fidel Castro

Religious faith, like political belief, should be based on reasoning, on the development of thought and feelings. The two things are inseparable.

~ Fidel Castro

The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.

~ Fidel Castro

The revenues of Cuban state-run companies are used exclusively for the benefit of the people, to whom they belong.

~ Fidel Castro

Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.

~ Fidel Castro

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them - neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

~ Fidel Castro