19 Notable Quotes By Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende was a well-known Chilean physician and democratic socialist politician. From 1970 to 1973, he served as the President of Chile. He was the foremost Marxist to hold this position in a country with liberal democracy. He also served as the head of ‘Popular Unity’ political coalition government. He covered the posts of senator, deputy and cabinet minister in a political span of approximately four decades. We have compiled a list of noteworthy quotes and thoughts by Salvador Allende that are sure to inspire you and give you a glimpse of his political mind. Following is a collection of thought-provoking quotes and sayings by Salvador Allende which have been curated from his works, thoughts, public utterances, speeches, interviews, and life.
I have experience and I am employing it in the service of a Chilean road for Chile's problems. We always take advantage of experience wherever it comes from, but adapting it to our reality. I am putting it to use in a Chilean way, for the problems of Chile. We are not anyone's mental colonists.
![This is an instrument in the hands of the people for fighting the fascist saboteurs, because the Chilean armed forces are a guarantee of constitutionality and integrity.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132634.jpg)
This is an instrument in the hands of the people for fighting the fascist saboteurs, because the Chilean armed forces are a guarantee of constitutionality and integrity.
![There can be leftist groups that have not matured politically.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132633.jpg)
There can be leftist groups that have not matured politically.
![People can progress only by working and producing more.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132631.jpg)
People can progress only by working and producing more.
![People can come and see me, and I have the pleasure of being able to talk to them.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132630.jpg)
People can come and see me, and I have the pleasure of being able to talk to them.
![Only an organized and conscious people can bring about a different kind of society.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132629.jpg)
Only an organized and conscious people can bring about a different kind of society.
![It's much harder to bring about socialism through legal means, because there are so many possibilities for opposition.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132628.jpg)
It's much harder to bring about socialism through legal means, because there are so many possibilities for opposition.
![If the U.S. is going to defend itself, why shouldn't we do the same? We only want to be treated equally, nothing more.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132627.jpg)
If the U.S. is going to defend itself, why shouldn't we do the same? We only want to be treated equally, nothing more.
![I was a minister in the Frente Popular (Popular Front) government, one of the three in Chile during the Pedro Aguirre Cerda years, and I was as much a Socialist then as I am today.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132626.jpg)
I was a minister in the Frente Popular (Popular Front) government, one of the three in Chile during the Pedro Aguirre Cerda years, and I was as much a Socialist then as I am today.
![I still believe in what I believed in for 20 years as a Socialist in Parliament, and being a Socialist is not the same as being a utopian.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132625.jpg)
I still believe in what I believed in for 20 years as a Socialist in Parliament, and being a Socialist is not the same as being a utopian.
![I have often said that it doesn't matter to me if a student tells me he is a leader of the left, unless he is a good student. We need good students.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132624.jpg)
I have often said that it doesn't matter to me if a student tells me he is a leader of the left, unless he is a good student. We need good students.
![I have always said to workers that they have to work hard, to produce more and better. In Chile, we need to achieve an average annual income of US$2,000, and to do that we need to increase production.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132621.jpg)
I have always said to workers that they have to work hard, to produce more and better. In Chile, we need to achieve an average annual income of US$2,000, and to do that we need to increase production.
![I can't spend my whole day talking to people.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132620.jpg)
I can't spend my whole day talking to people.
![First fulfill your academic obligations and then you will have the right to call yourself a leader of the left.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132619.jpg)
First fulfill your academic obligations and then you will have the right to call yourself a leader of the left.
![Every country has its own reality and its own leaders, and the leaders act in accordance with their reality.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132617.jpg)
Every country has its own reality and its own leaders, and the leaders act in accordance with their reality.
![Chile is a country that sells cheap and buys expensive, because we have to pay for manufactured goods from countries at much higher levels of development.](https://www.wisdomly.net/images/quotes/salvador-allende-132616.jpg)
Chile is a country that sells cheap and buys expensive, because we have to pay for manufactured goods from countries at much higher levels of development.
I have been to Cuba many times. I have spoken many times with Fidel Castro and got to know Commander Ernesto Guevara well enough. I know Cuba's leaders and their struggle. It has been difficult to overcome the blockade. But the reality in Cuba is very different from that in Chile. Cuba came from a dictatorship, and I arrived at the presidency after being senator for 25 years.
The Popular Unity government represented the first attempt anywhere to build a genuinely democratic transition to socialism - a socialism that, owing to its origins, might be guided not by authoritarian bureaucracy, but by democratic self-rule.
Fidel Castro is a man with a great sense of self-criticism and respect for his political friends. He is not going to give me instructions, and I am not the type of man who would take them. That's not to say that I don't approve of what is happening in Cuba, but he would never send me a letter telling me what to do or not to do.