Quotes from Jose Mujica

Fascism in Uruguay did not begin just with the military coup of 1973, but years before, even when there was still a government with a constitution and parliament.

I have the goal of getting together 30 or 40 poor kids and bringing them to live with me.

Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.

I don't want to be an apologist for poverty, but I can't stand waste, useless spending, wasted energy and having to live squandering stuff.

I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor.

Publicly, I've never talked about Argentina.

The world cries out for global rules that respect the achievements of science.

In life you can fall down 1000 times but the point is to have the willingness to stand up and to start again.

I know prisons from the inside.

I'm just sick of the way things are. We're in an age in which we can't live without accepting the logic of the market. Contemporary politics is all about short-term pragmatism. We have abandoned religion and philosophy... What we have left is the automatisation of doing what the market tells us.

I have a way of life that I don't change just because I am a president. I earn more than I need, even if it's not enough for others. For me, it is no sacrifice, it's a duty.

I'm not the apocalypse nor the promised land.

If we lived within our means - by being prudent - the 7 billion people in the world could have everything they needed. Global politics should be moving in that direction. But we think as people and countries, not as a species.

If you don't have many possessions, then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself.

If the inmates of Guantanamo want to make their nests in Uruguay, they can do it.

All my life I've been rowing against the tide. What can I do? It seems I was born that way.

The political climate during a campaign is not the best climate for reasonable debate.

My years in jail were a bit like a workshop for my - that actually forged my way of thinking and my values.

The fight against the drug smuggling is lost worldwide.

If I worried about pollsters, I wouldn't be president.

The kids of today have to be better than us. We must strive to create tools adequate for human beings that come with other things that are, at least, different from those we used to have.

I'll shout it if they want: Down with isms! Up with a Left that is capable of thinking outside the box! In other words, I am more than completely cured of simplifications, of dividing the world into good and evil, of thinking in black and white. I have repented!

My lifestyle is a consequence of my wounds. I'm the son of my history.

Some people love money and get into politics. If they love money so much, they should get into commerce, industry, or do whatever they want - it's no sin. But politics is for serving the people.