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FACTBOX: Quotes from Fidel Castro

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Cuban President Fidel Castro acknowledges the applause of the audience while standing underneath an image of late revolutionary hero Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara, during the inauguration of games involving mainly Cuban and Venezuelan athletes in Havana in this June 17, 2005 file photo. Ailing Cuban leader Castro said on February 19, 2008 that he will not return to lead the country, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. REUTERS/Claudia Daut

Cuban President Fidel Castro acknowledges the applause of the audience while standing underneath an image of late revolutionary hero Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara, during the inauguration of games involving mainly Cuban and Venezuelan athletes in Havana in this June 17, 2005 file photo. Ailing Cuban leader Castro said on February 19, 2008 that he will not return to lead the country, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.

Credit: Reuters/Claudia Daut

Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:01am EST

(Reuters) - Fidel Castro formally withdrew from power on Tuesday almost half a century after he and his bearded guerrillas toppled a U.S-backed dictator in a 1959 revolution.

Here are some of his more memorable quotes:

* "Condemn me. It is of no importance. History will absolve me." -- Castro in 1953, when the young lawyer was defending himself at trial for his near-suicidal assault on the Moncada garrison in Santiago de Cuba.

* "I began the revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action." -- 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.

* "A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past." -- Castro in 1959.

* "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.

* "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."

* "I realized that my true destiny would be the war that I was going to have with the United States." -- Castro's opening quote in "Looking for Fidel," Stone's second documentary on the Cuban leader from 2004.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana, Editing by Michael Christie)
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