Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

From now on you must pray for your people and yourself three times a day.

I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

One of the fundamental preconditions of successful socialist construction is to ensure the people's readiness to defend themselves from the ravages of probable regional or global wars on the basis of the balance of forces generating from the basic contradictions of our epoch.

In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave]... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

We thought that the proletariat would eventually run the world. But it is the Americans who have assumed that position... The American people have changed.