Fidel Castro

“A revolution is not a trail of roses .... A revolution is a fight to the death between the future and the past . Speech on the second anniversary of the triumph of the revolution”

“The first duty of the revolutionaries is to tell the truth. Fooling the people, promoting illusions, always brings the worst consequences , and I believe that the people should be warned against excessive optimism. How did the Red Army win the war? By telling the truth. How did the dictatorship lose the war? By deceiving the soldiers. Camp Columbia, Havana (Jan. 8th, 1959), Fidel Castro Reader , pp. 133”

“I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement, but we do not have to say that we are anticommunists just to fawn on foreign powers. Resignation announcement”

“The American people, I think, is good people. Yes, they are”

“Men do not shape destiny . Destiny produces the man for the hour. I Won't Be a Dictator”

“I am not a dictator , and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a machine gun . I Won't Be a Dictator , interview with Ruth Lloyd (January 1959), printed in The Spokesman”

“Weapons for what? ( ¿Armas, para qué? ) To fight against whom? Against the revolutionary government, that has the support of the whole people? ... Weapons for what? Hiding weapons for what? To blackmail the President of the Republic? To threaten to break the peace here? To create organizations of gangsters ? Is it that we are going to return to gangsterism? Is it that we will return to daily shootouts in the capital? Weapons for what? Speech in Havana”

“The 26th of July Movement is not a tendency within the party, it is the revolutionary apparatus of Chibas's organization, a grass”

“I feel my belief in sacrifice and struggle getting stronger. I despise the kind of existence that clings to the miserly trifles of comfort and self”