Fidel Castro Quotes
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on the 13th of August, 1926 in Biran, Cuba. He was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011.
Fidel Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, industry and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society. He was decorated with various international awards and significantly influenced different individuals and groups across the world. Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016 in Havana, Cuba.
Below, we have compiled an array of famous Fidel Castro quotes and sayings.
80 Fidel Castro Quotes About Life, Politics & Humanity
“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 Quote
“A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“To the accusation that Cuba wants to export its revolution, we reply: Revolutions are not exported, they are made by the people.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
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 Quote
Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.― Fidel Castro Quote
The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.― Fidel Castro Quote
There is not Communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy.― Fidel Castro Quote
There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by, and the problem will remain the same.― Fidel Castro Quote
We do not exploit our dolphins for profit.― Fidel Castro Quote
The squandering of oil and gas is associated with one of the greatest tragedies, not in the least resolved, which is suffered by humankind: climate change.― Fidel Castro Quote
The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero.― Fidel Castro Quote
There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.― Fidel Castro Quote
Every citizen has the real right to receive general education and professional training at no cost, something that the United States has not been able to ensure for all its inhabitants.― Fidel Castro Quote
Venezuela, given its extraordinary educational, cultural, and social developments, and its vast energy and natural resources, is called on to become a revolutionary model for the world.― Fidel Castro Quote
Soon, I’ll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain.― Fidel Castro Quote
Without a tutor to help me in the study of Marxism-Leninism, I was no more than a theorist and, of course, had total confidence in the Soviet Union.― Fidel Castro Quote
Defending peace is the duty of all.― Fidel Castro Quote
None of us is designed for the role we must assume in a revolutionary society, although Cubans had the privilege of Jose Marti’s example.― Fidel Castro Quote
Homeland or death! Socialism or death! We shall overcome!― Fidel Castro Quote
Christ didn’t choose the rich to preach the doctrine; he choose 12 poor ignorant workers – that is, he chose the proletariat of the times.― Fidel Castro Quote
It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.― Fidel Castro Quote
No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.― Fidel Castro Quote
The kings of Spain brought us the conquistadores and masters, whose footprints remained in the circular land grants assigned to those searching for gold in the sands of rivers, an abusive and shameful form of exploitation, traces of which can be noted from the air in many places around the country.― Fidel Castro Quote
The human being is a strange mixture of blind instinct, on one hand, and conscience, on the other.― Fidel Castro Quote
My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.― Fidel Castro Quote
Nature teaches us that tens of billions of light years may have passed, and life in all of its expressions has always been subjected to an incredible combination of matter and radiation.― Fidel Castro Quote
I was not the son of a worker or lacking in material or social resources for a relatively comfortable existence; I could say I miraculously escaped wealth.― Fidel Castro Quote
If you calculate 15 minutes a day to shave, that is 5,000 minutes a year spent shaving.― Fidel Castro Quote
Nothing in the world is irreversible, not even capitalism.― Fidel Castro Quote
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 Quote
“Today you cannot talk about a United Nations system;… what actually exists is a domination system over nearly all countries in the world by a small group of powers under the aegis of the United States, determining all issues.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“…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 Quote
“Today, the entire country is an immense University.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
“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 Quote
I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.― Fidel Castro Quote
The Soviet Union, the socialist camp, the People’s Republic of China, and North Korea helped us resist, with essential supplies and weapons, the implacable blockade of the United States, the most powerful empire ever to exist.― Fidel Castro Quote
Religious faith, like political belief, should be based on reasoning, on the development of thought and feelings. The two things are inseparable.― Fidel Castro Quote
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 Quote
At times, I’ve referred to Christ’s miracles, and have said, ‘Well, Christ multiplied the fish and the loaves to feed the people. That is precisely what we want to do with the Revolution and socialism.’― Fidel Castro Quote
It doesn’t sound too good to say I am the son of a landowner, so let us rather say I am the grandson of exploited Galician peasants.― Fidel Castro Quote
The lies of the empire and the treason of the quislings shall be defeated.― Fidel Castro Quote
England was the first true colonial power to use its dominion over a large part of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, North America, and many Caribbean islands, in the first half of the 20th century.― Fidel Castro Quote
Cynicism is something which has become symbolic of imperial policy.― Fidel Castro Quote
We are political animals, as, not without reason, affirmed Aristotle, who perhaps influenced humanity’s thinking more than any other ancient philosopher through his almost 200 treatises, according to reports, of which only 31 have been preserved.― Fidel Castro Quote
The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.― Fidel Castro Quote
I am a just man.― Fidel Castro Quote
No political event can be judged outside of the era and the circumstances in which it took place.― Fidel Castro Quote
Social struggles have been taking place throughout millennia, since human beings, by resorting to wars, were able to take hold of a surplus production to satisfy the essential needs of life.― Fidel Castro Quote
Sorry, I’m still a dialectical materialist.― Fidel Castro Quote
Every country must be absolutely free to adopt the type of economic, political and social system that it considers convenient.― Fidel Castro Quote
The traditional stand adopted by the Cuban Revolution, which was always opposed to any action that could jeopardize the life of civilians, is well known.― Fidel Castro Quote
Never have we stolen the intelligences of other peoples. On the contrary, in Cuba we have trained tens of thousands of doctors and other top-level professionals, for free, in order to send them back to their own countries.― Fidel Castro Quote
Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.― Fidel Castro Quote
Even in the United States, the enslavement of African descendants continued until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. That brutal form of slavery was abolished there hardly thirty years before it was abolished in Cuba.― Fidel Castro Quote
Cuba came to be the last country to get rid of Spanish colonialism and the first to shake off the heinous imperialist tutelage.― Fidel Castro Quote
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 Quote
In my next incarnation, I want to be a writer.― Fidel Castro Quote
The unyielding resistance of the Cuban patriots is symbolized by our 5 Heroes. They shall never back down! They shall never surrender!― Fidel Castro Quote
We are proud of the history of our country; we learned it in school and have grown up hearing of freedom, justice and human rights.― Fidel Castro Quote
During the second half of the twentieth century, I had the privilege of living through years of intensive erudition, and I realized that Canadians, located in the northernmost region of this hemisphere, were always respectful towards our country.― Fidel Castro Quote
Obama has no way to conceal that Osama was executed in front of his children and wives, who are now under the custody of the authorities of Pakistan, a Muslim country of almost 200 million inhabitants, whose laws have been violated, its national dignity offended, and its religious traditions desecrated.― Fidel Castro Quote
I will never retire from politics, the revolution, or the ideas I have.― Fidel Castro Quote
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 Quote
North Americans don’t understand… that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.― Fidel Castro Quote
The Arab population of Palestine are victims of genocidal actions; their lands are confiscated or deprived of water supplies in the semi-desert areas, and their homes are destroyed with heavy wrecking equipment.― Fidel Castro Quote
The people of Egypt are an intelligent people with a glorious history who left their mark on civilization.― Fidel Castro Quote
Something must be done to save humanity! A better world is possible!― Fidel Castro Quote
Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.― Fidel Castro Quote
“inspired my own life. Victory has thousands father but failure always find itself an orphan.” ― Fidel Castro Quote
“Humanity can learn from those who have broken their chains. Those who have chained humanity for centuries cannot teach humanity anything.” ― Fidel Castro Quote