Fidel Castro Quotes

A revolution is not a bed of roses.

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

I am a Marxist-Leninist, and I will be one until the last days of my life.

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

I don’t think that social policies should be put under the dogma of religion. Religion should be saved from that.

A country that does not know how to read and write is easy to deceive.

I am not a dictator, and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a rifle.

I’m a Marxist-Leninist and I will be until the last days of my life.

I realized that my true destiny would be the war that was about to begin.

Politics is the art of reflecting the will of a people and of defending the fortunate rights that have been won.

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

I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement I lead.

I reached the conclusion long ago that the one last sacrifice I must make for [Cuba] is to offer myself in exchange.

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

I’m not a dreamer. I’m a revolutionary.

Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.

I am a person of the Third World who is obligated to struggle, and who struggles with the teeth of imperialism, and I myself accept any responsibility for what I do.

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

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

I am not afraid of the pen, or the scaffold, or the sword. I will tell the truth wherever I please.

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

I am a Marxist-Leninist, and I will be one until my last breath.

In such a small country (Cuba) everybody knows everything about you.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

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

What do baseball players want most? For our victories to be attributed to our own mistakes.

I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement I represent.

We have to have a thick skin. They call us dictators. They accuse us of things they can’t prove.

If I am considered a myth, the myth is Cuba.

The victory of socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!

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

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.

I do not trust the U.S. since they never kept their word.

I am a Marxist-Leninist and I will be one until the end of my days.

I was a total opportunist.

I realized that my true calling was a war against injustice.

The greatest enemy of solidarity, of our capacity for cooperation, of our capacity for working together, of helping one another, of promoting one another, is selfishness, the exaltation of individualism.

Imperialism is a paper tiger.

The freedom of the press belongs only to those who own one.

The revolution is like a bicycle. When it stops, it falls.

I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews.

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

How can we separate ourselves from the masses or ignore their suffering?

There’s no reason to regret what couldn’t be changed.

In the Third World, students went to class to study, but also to become revolutionaries.

I warned the comrades about that matter [referring to using violence]. I told them that guns should not lead the struggle. Guns should only be carried along.

A revolution without a revolutionary theory is not the Revolution.

A true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love.

Cuba’s fight for independence has always been a symbol of world-wide struggle against imperialism.

A revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.