Hugo Chavez Dies: His Greatest Quotes

Here are a few of the commandante’s verbal gems:

"Cuba is a dictatorship." [during 1998 presidential run]

"I'm not the devil." [during 1998 presidential run]

"Yesterday the devil came here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today." [at UN in 2006, on George W. Bush]

“Marisabel, I'm giving you one tonight, get ready!" [to his wife, on Valentine’s Day 2000]

“Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity." [2003, on the discovery of the New World by Europeans]

"You are a fraud, Obama. ... Go and ask many people in Africa, who might have believed in you because of the color of your skin, because your father was from Africa. You are an Afro-descendant, but you are the shame of all those people." [on Barack Obama, 2011]

“Bombing the brave Libyan people to save them? What a brilliant strategy by the mad empire. Where are the international rights? This is like the caveman era." [on NATO's bombing campaign in Libya, 2011]

"You are an alcoholic, a drunk, a liar, an immoral person, Mr. Danger. You are the worst ... a psychologically sick man." [on George W. Bush]

"I chew coca leaves every morning, and look at me!" [on natural health benefits, 2008]

"Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ -- who I think was the first socialist -- only socialism can really create a genuine society." [on Christ's economic views, 2006]

"We go from summit to summit, while our people go from abyss to abyss." [2005, on the value of presidential summits]

"Israel criticizes Hitler a lot, so do we, but they've done something very similar, even worse, than what the Nazis did." [on Israel, during visit to Iran in 2006]