Quotes from Che Guevara

Veremos si algun día, algún minero tome un pico con placer y vaya a envenenar sus pulmones con consciente alegría. Dicen que allá, donde viene la llamarada roja que deslumbra hoy al mundo, es así. Yo no sé.

We ourselves, a revolutionary government, part of the people, have learned by always asking the people and without ever isolating ourselves from them. Because he who governs, yet isolates himself in an ivory tower and tries to lead the people with formulas, is lost and is on the road to despotism. The people and the government should always be one.

Today none of the old assertions are accepted any longer just because they were written long ago. Instead, people demand proof in practice of what is asserted; they want a scientific analysis of all assertions. Out of this dissatisfaction, revolutionary ideas are born and spread more and more throughout the world, backed by the living examples of how technology can be put at the service of man, as has happened in the socialist countries.

Without or­ganization, ideas, after some initial momentum, start losing their effect. They become routine, degenerate into conformity, and end up simply a memory. I raise this warning because too often, in this short but rich period of our revolution, many great initiatives have failed. They have been forgotten because of the lack of an organiza­tional apparatus needed to keep them going and bring them to frui­tion.

So what must I say about the university's fundamental duty, its article number one, in this new Cuba? What I must say is that the university should color itself black and color itself mulatto-not just as regards students but also professors. It should paint itself the color of workers and peasants. It should paint itself the color of the people, because the university is the patrimony of no one but the people of Cuba.

The first frictions and difficulties with the "northern giant" began immediately. These frictions were logi­cal if you consider that a country accustomed to special treatment suddenly saw that this little "colony" in the Caribbean irreverently sought to speak the only language a revolution can speak: the lan­guage of equal treatment.

To the powerful masters we repre­sent all that is absurd, negative, irreverent, and disruptive in this America that they so despise and scorn. But on the other hand, to the great mass of the American people (I'm referring to Our America, which is everything south of the Rio Bravo)-these peoples derisively called "mestizos"-we represent everything noble, sincere, and combative.

Our youth must always be free, discussing and exchanging ideas, concerned with what is happening throughout the entire world, open to using technology coming from any part of the world; wel­coming whatever the world might offer us. And you must always be sensitive to the struggle, the sufferings, and the hopes of oppressed peoples everywhere. This is how we will build our future.

SueÅ"a y serás libre en espiritu, lucha y serás libre en vida

We are attacked a great deal because of what we are. But we are attacked much, much more because we show to each nation of the Americas what it's possible to be.

if we center our efforts on war prepa­rations, we cannot build what we want, we cannot devote ourselves to creative work. All work, all capital invested in preparing for military action, is labor lost, money lost. Unfortunately, it has to be done, because others are preparing. But the money I am most saddened to see leave the National Bank coffers-and I say this with all honesty and pride as a soldier-is money to pay for some weapon of destruc­tion.

In the tran­sition to socialism, man "starts to see himself reflected in his work and to understand his full stature as a human being through the object created, through the work accomplished. Work no longer entails surrendering a part of his being in the form of labor power sold, which no longer belongs to him, but represents an expression and extension of himself, a contribution to the common social exist­ence in which he is reflected.

Not underdeveloped, as they call us, because we are not underdeveloped. We are simply badly developed, badly developed because imperialism long ago took over our raw materials and set out to exploit them according to its own imperial needs.

He will also make use of what he learns as the months or years of the war strengthen his revolutionary convictions, making him more radical as the potency of arms is demonstrated, as the outlook of the inhabitants becomes a part of his spirit and of his own life, and as he understands the justice and the vital necessity of a series of changes, of which the theoretical importance appeared to him before, but devoid of practical urgency.

Words that do not match deeds are not important.

Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates. Instead they must dedicate themselves to study, work and military service. The very spirit of rebellion is reprehensible.

The only passion that guides me is for the truth... I look at everything from this point of view.

It is unnecessary to say that Fidel Castro possesses the high qualities of a fighter and statesman: our path, our struggle, and our triumph we owed to his vision.

The desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone.

The world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed. Man ceases to be the slave and tool of his environment and converts himself into the architect of his own destiny.

We have no right to believe that freedom can be won without struggle.

We must do away with all newspapers. A revolution cannot be accomplished with freedom of the press.