Fidel Castro: Fifteen Memorable Quotes

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Fidel Castro: Fifteen Memorable Quotes

Fidel Castro has resigned.

Finally.

Officially.

Let the celebrations in Miami begin!

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. He came to power in an armed revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and was shortly thereafter sworn in as the Prime Minister of Cuba.

In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic.

In 1976 he became president of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.

On July 31, 2006, after undergoing intestinal surgery for diverticulitis, he transferred his responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raúl Castro.

On February 19, 2008, five days before his current mandate expired, he announced he would not seek nor accept a new term as either president or commander-in-chief.

Last year in September, Castro was quoted as saying that he was "determined to outlast President George Bush.

He didn't achieve that goal, nor many of his others since seizing power in Cuba almost 50 years ago.

We present fifteen Fidel Castro quotes to celebrate his resignation.

"A revolution is not a bed of roses. "

-- Castro in 1959.

"I'm not thinking to cut my beard, because I'm accustomed to my beard and my beard means many things to my country. When we have fulfilled our promise of good government I will cut my beard."

--Castro in 1959, interview with CBS's Edward Murrow, 30 days after revolution.

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

--Castro to director Oliver Stone in 2003 documentary "Comandante."

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

--Castro in the Observer

"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

"I feel it is my duty to be more disciplined, do my exercises and take maximum care of myself -- even if only to mortify [his opponents] a little longer."

--The Cuban leader explaining his motives for keeping in shape.

"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."

--on NY Mayor Rudy Guiliani

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

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

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

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

--Fidel Castro

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

--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 was a man who was lucky enough to have discovered a political theory, a man who was caught up in the whirlpool of Cuba's political crisis . . .discovering Marxism . . .was like finding a map in the forest."

--Castro

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

--Castro in 1985.

15 quotes from Fidel Castro, until yesterday, the absolute leader and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Cuba.

Others reporting in FIDEL-a-VISION this morning
* Lawhawk has a nice roundup of All Things Fidel: Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss
* Jammie Wearing Fool has the expected reactions of the Left: Cadaver Resigns, Left in Mourning
* Ed Driscoll has a nice Fidel-A-Rama: Aging, Ailing Cuban Dictator "Retires"
* Michelle Malkin has "Castro to Resign: 'This is Not my Farewell to You'"