Fidel Castro Quotes & Sayings

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away. — Fidel Castro

If someone is responsible, it's me, — Fidel Castro

The percentage of mentally disturbed people in the United States is very high. From the time the American gets up in the morning, he feels as if someone is trying to influence his will in some way: he is a person with a thousand pressures. The Americans live under a great strain ... and have great feelings of frustration. — Fidel Castro

The first thing dictators do is finish free press, to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship. — 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

Humanity can learn from those who have broken their chains. Those who have chained humanity for centuries cannot teach humanity anything. — Fidel Castro

We have the lowest student-teacher ratio and spend five times as much on schools than war - the opposite of what the United States does. [explaining why Cuba has the highest literacy in the world] — Fidel Castro

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism. — Fidel Castro

Ideas do not need weapons. — Fidel Castro

I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened. — Fidel Castro

Nowhere in the world, in no act of genocide, in no war, are so many people killed per minute, per hour and per day as those who are killed by hunger and poverty on our planet. — Fidel Castro

Some time ago, the United States was an English colony. If an Englishman were asked if the United States would be independent, he would have said no, that it would always be an English colony. — Fidel Castro

So these Red Sox ... are they a Communist organization? — 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 am not a dictator, and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a machine gun. — Fidel Castro

I propose the immediate launching of a nuclear strike on the United States. The Cuban people are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause of the destruction of imperialism and the victory of world revolution. — Fidel Castro

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. — Fidel Castro

I became a Communist by studying capitalist political economy, and when I had some understanding of that problem, it actually seemed to me so absurd, so irrational, so inhuman, that I simply began to elaborate on my own formulas for production and distribution. — Fidel Castro

If religious feeling is put in opposition to social change, then it does become an opium, but if it is joined to the struggle for social change then it is a wonderful medicine. — Fidel Castro

I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba. — Fidel Castro

I am not a follower of Moscow, but its victim. — Fidel Castro

It would have been the easiest thing in the world for us to build those emplacements under the guise of something totally different and they would have never been discovered. The amazing thing was that they weren't discovered earlier. It was a question of carelessness, lack of foresight. — Fidel Castro

I do not conceive of any manifestation of culture, of science, of art, as purposes in themselves. I think the purpose of science and culture is man. — Fidel Castro

There is no more democratic government than a revolutionary government. — Fidel Castro

One of the greatest benefits of the revolution is that even our prostitutes are college graduates. — Fidel Castro

We do not deny the possibility of peaceful [political] transition, but we are still awaiting the first case. — Fidel Castro

The solutions put forth by imperialism are the quintessence of simplicity ... When they speak of the problems of population and birth, they are in no way moved by concepts related to the interests of the family or of society ... Just when science and technology are making incredible advances in all fields, they resort to technology to suppress revolutions and ask the help of science to prevent population growth. In short, the peoples are not to make revolutions, and women are not to give birth. This sums up the philosophy of imperialism. — Fidel Castro

On birthdays I avoid taking hasty or impulsive measures. — Fidel Castro

Forgive me for using the term 'fat little brother' ... It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health. — Fidel Castro

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

Good athletes do not know what tiredness is. They do not know what discouragement is. Good athletes only know what victory is. — Fidel Castro

I am a Marxist Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life. — Fidel Castro

The greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been. — Fidel Castro

inspired my own life.
Victory has thousands father but failure always find itself an orphan.
--Fidel Castro — Fidel Castro

Sorry, I'm still a dialectical materialist. — Fidel Castro

The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. — Fidel Castro

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

I have always fought for concrete facts, for justice. — Fidel Castro

All criticism is opposition. All opposition is counter-revolutionary. — Fidel Castro

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

There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust. — Fidel Castro

In the Third World, there are 1.3 billion poor people. In other words, one out of every three inhabitants lives in poverty. — Fidel Castro

A large percentage of those living in developed societies are told what brand of soda they should drink, what cigarettes they should smoke, what clothes and shoes they should wear, what they should eat and what brand of food they should buy. Their political ideas are supplied in the same way. Every year a trillion dollars is spent on advertising. — Fidel Castro

We must establish a new world order based on justice, on equity, and on peace. — 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

I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. — Fidel Castro

I don't think that the contradictions between capitalism and socialism can be resolved by war. This is no longer the age of the bow and arrow. It's the nuclear age, and war can annihilate us all. The only way to achieve solutions seems to be for the different social systems to coexist. — Fidel Castro

The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government. — Fidel Castro

Revolutionaries must proclaim their ideas courageously ... and express their intentions so that no one is deceived. — Fidel Castro

More than 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger; and 790 million of them live in the Third World. — 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 Mr. Kennedy does not like Socialism, we do not like imperialism. We do not like Capitalism. — Fidel Castro

Sovereignty is not negotiated in exchange for anything; to maintain the achievements of the revolution does not depend on a foreign power. — Fidel Castro

No thieves, no traitors, no interventionists! This time the revolution is for real! — Fidel Castro

I've always considered Christ to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in the history of humanity. — Fidel Castro

I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujib. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas. — Fidel Castro

Whoever hesitates while waiting for ideas to triumph among the masses before initiating revolutionary action will never be a revolutionary. Humanity will, of course, change. Human society will, of course, continue to develop-in spite of men and the errors of men. But that is not a revolutionary attitude. — Fidel Castro

I am someone who's been in politics for 43 years and I know what I'm doing and what I should do. Have no doubt that I know how to tell the truth and to do so elegantly. — Fidel Castro

A revolution is not a bed of roses. — Fidel Castro

Yoga does things with the human body that defy the imagination. — Fidel Castro

Someday, the capitalist system will disappear in the United States, because no social class system has been eternal. One day, class societies will disappear. — Fidel Castro

I never perceived a contradiction in the political revolutionary field between the ideas I maintained and the idea of that symbol, that extraordinary figure who had been so familiar to me since I began to reason. — 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

A smart policy should be one that tends to receive the capitals, pays the price for that capital - which is the interest - returns the capital and in the end the factories, the industries, are left to remain in the country. — Fidel Castro

If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal. — 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

Hysterical? Neuractic? I am all that ain't more than juggernaut! — Fidel Castro

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

I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ. — Fidel Castro

North Americans don't understand ... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity. — Fidel Castro

The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs. — Fidel Castro

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

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

I will not speak of him as if he were absent, he has not been and he will never be. These are not mere words of consolation. Only those of us who feel it truly and permanently in the depths of our souls can comprehend this. Physical life is ephemeral, it passes inexorably ... This truth should be taught to every human being
that the immortal values of the spirit are above physical life. What sense does life have without these values? What then is it to live? Those who understand this and generously sacrifice their physical life for the sake of good and justice
how can they die? God is the supreme idea of goodness and justice. — Fidel Castro

How can we help President Obama? — Fidel Castro

I would not vote for the mayor. It's not just because he didn't invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes. — Fidel Castro

We are going to give a little something, a few little years more, to socialism, because socialism is defunct. It dies all by itself. The bad thing is that socialism, being a victim of its ... Did I say socialism? — Fidel Castro

Cuba has the cleanest and most-educated prostitutes in the world. — Fidel Castro

I don't think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail. — Fidel Castro

We are not only a Latin American nation, we are an Afro-American nation also. — Fidel Castro

Fellow workers and peasants, this is the socialist and democratic revolution of the working people, with the working people, and for the working people. And for this revolution of the working people, by the working people, and for the working people we are prepared to give our lives. — Fidel Castro

If we had paused to tell the people that we were Marxist-Leninists while we were on Pico Turquino and not yet strong, it is possible that we would never have been able to descend to the plains. — Fidel Castro

The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet. — Fidel Castro

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief. — Fidel Castro

I can assure you that my first and foremost interest is my country. — Fidel Castro

This country is heaven, in the spiritual sense of the word. And I say, we prefer to die in heaven than survive in hell. — Fidel Castro

Warfare is a means and not an end. Warfare is a tool of revolutionaries. The important thing is the revolution. The important thing is the revolutionary cause, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary objectives, revolutionary sentiments, revolutionary virtues! — Fidel Castro

Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical. — Fidel Castro

The Alliance for Progress is an alliance between one millionaire and many beggars. — Fidel Castro

The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore, — Fidel Castro

Nothing in the world is irreversible, not even capitalism. — Fidel Castro

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

No government can sell its nation on the backs of its people. — Fidel Castro

Were Kennedy not a millionaire, illiterate and ignorant, then he would obviously understand that you cannot revolt against the peasants. — Fidel Castro

It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action. — Fidel Castro

I promise all Cuban mothers that I will never will make them weep. — Fidel Castro

We need a Nuremberg to put on trial the economic order that they have imposed on us, that every three years kills more men, women and children by hunger and preventable or curable diseases than the death toll in six years of the second world war. — Fidel Castro

The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters. — Fidel Castro

There is not Communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy. — Fidel Castro

Capitalism has neither the capacity, nor the morality, nor the ethics to solve the problems of poverty. — Fidel Castro