"If I were dammed of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, mother o' mine o mother o' mine."

"For the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one."

"We're not perfect, but we do have democracy."

"Don't be shameless, Mr Blair. Don't be immoral, Mr Blair. You are one of those who have no morals. You are not one who has the right to criticise anyone about the rules of the international community."

"I was a farm kid from the plains of South Venezuela, from a very poor family. I grew up in a palm tree house with an earthen floor."

"We must reduce all the emissions that are destroying the planet. However, that requires a change in lifestyle, a change in the economic model: We must go from capitalism to socialism."

"Our policy is to deepen the relations with all the countries in the world - monarchies, kingdoms, large powers - we want to respect all differences and have our relationships based on mutual respect."

"I think developed countries - so-called developed countries - should reflect upon the way of living and the waste of energy."

"I am a President held prisoner, that I haven't resigned and I will not resign."

"The left is back, and it's the only path we have to get out of the spot to which the right has sunken us. Socialism builds and capitalism destroys."

"Venezuela has changed forever."

"I am convinced that the path to a new, better and possible world is not capitalism, the path is socialism."

"Everyone is more or less mad on one point."

"A people always ends by resembling its shadow."

"And that is called paying the Dane-geld; but we've proved it again and again, that if once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane."

"I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages."

"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it."

"Gardens are not made by singing "Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade."

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."

"We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse."

"Mutual respect! That's what it takes to be friends."

"I was born in the poor countryside. I was raised in the countryside, planting corn and selling sweets made by my grandmother."

"Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations."

"Terrorists bombard complete cities, such as Fallujah, Baghdad, innocent women and children."

"The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy; there's no dictatorship here."

"One of the greatest rebels, who I really admire: Christ. He was a rebel. He ended up being crucified. He was a great rebel. He rebelled against the established power that subjugated."

"Long live the Unity of Latin America."

"There is no turning back."

"Convinced as I am and as I am from my government that the world needs a new moral architecture over all I believe that this should be the first topic to debate in our world of today, ethics, moral."

"I've been in revolt for years against ignominy, against injustice, against inequality, against immorality, against the exploitation of human beings."

"He travels the fastest who travels alone."

"All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They."

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/ And treat those two impostors just the same."

"If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. . . . The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son."

"Gentlemen-Rankers out on the spree, / Damned from here to Eternity."

"For the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

"Never look backwards or you'll fall down the stairs."

"Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told anyone how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established."

"Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run."

"Racism is very characteristic of imperialism. Racism is very characteristic of capitalism."

"Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet. This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council."

"I even believed in a third way; I thought it was possible to put a human face on capitalism. But I was wrong. The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy; there's no dictatorship here."

"When we were children, we were told that we have a motherland, and that motherland was Spain. However, we have discovered later, in our lives, that as a matter of fact, we have several motherlands. And one of the greatest motherlands of all is, no doubt, Africa."

"Oil is a very valuable resource for life - electric heaters. We must have to transition ourselves to a post-oil era. And that's what we must discuss: searching and developing new sources of energy. And that requires scientific research. That requires investment. And the developed countries must be the ones to assume this responsibility first."

"In the United States, the government is bailing out banks, intervening in the economy, yet in Latin America, the Right continues to talk about 'free markets.' It's totally outdated; they don't have arguments; they don't have any sense."

"We must be aware of consumerism! That's our tendency. It's the capitalistic curse that we were poisoned with. We should spend only what is necessary. How do you call the big cars, the latest ones? Hummer! Not a single dollar to import Hummers! What is that? What is that? What kind of revolution is this? One of Hummers? No way!"

"I shook Obama's hand and I said, 'I want to be your friend.' My hand is still outstretched. I am not Obama's enemy, but it's difficult not see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it don't want to see it, like the ostrich."

"Noam Chomsky has a book, which I read for the first time when I was in Spain, called 'Fear of Democracy'. There is your answer. Fear of democracy. In Honduras, they had a sham democracy. It was run by elites, what was called a liberal democracy, but in reality was a false democracy."

"I became a soldier, not because I had a military vocation initially, but because it was the only way that that young, poor-class child from the provinces could go to the center of the country: through baseball, which was my dream."