“Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical.”

The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is – and I mean this seriously – the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been.

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.

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.

How can we help President Obama?

U.S. leaders should think that if they are aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe.

Good athletes do not know what tiredness is. They do not know what discouragement is. Good athletes only know what victory is.

Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me.

Ideas do not need weapons, to the extent that they can convince the great masses.

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

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

I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.

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

The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet.

I promise all Cuban mothers that I will never will make them weep.

There is no more democratic government than a revolutionary government.

It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action.

I cannot drink or do anything that changes the mind.

As my father [Javāharlāl Nehrū] said, you have to keep an open mind, but you have to pour something into it – otherwise ideas slip away like sand between your fingers.

Age is a state of mind. Youth and age exist only among the ordinary people. All the more talented and exceptional of us; are sometimes old, just as we are sometimes happy, and sometimes sad.

Bolshevism is knocking at our gates, we can’t afford to let it in.We must keep America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must keep the worker away from red literature and red ruses; we must see that his mind remains healthy.

Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.

Cleaning up the country cannot be the sole responsibility of sweepers. Do citizens have no role in this? We have to change this mindset.

Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.

Mind you, there is no value in learning. You are all mistaken in learning. The only value of knowledge is in the strengthening, the disciplining, of the mind.