We should see the realities which exist in our society. Naturally, when one takes a look at realities, one focuses on weak points. All the things which we observe in our society - including the problem of high prices or failure in reaching certain Islamic goals - are among the realities which we often see clearly.
Of course, some people magnify these realities. This is while there are other realities in the country as well and these realities should be seen. One of these realities is what I just referred to: the reality of the resistance of the Islamic Republic on the basis of Islam. This is a reality.
The enemies of Islam and Iran expected that the people would be tired of, forget about and abandon the Revolution after one, two, five years. This is what has happened to many revolutions in the world. In fact, I should say that this has happened to all, not many, revolutions. As far as I know, this has happened to all the revolutions which have been conducted in the world during the past 200, 250 years. After a short while, their excitement wore off, their revolutionary wave began to fall and they were back to prior conditions.
During my presidency, I went to a country which had carried out a revolution seven, eight years before. The leader of the country was among the revolutionary elements at the time we went there. When I entered the place where we were supposed to have a feast, I saw that the same situation which existed during the time of the previous colonialist ruler - who was Portuguese and who had colonized this country - existed at that time too. I saw that the same situation existed both in terms of appearance and in terms of behavior. There was no difference.
Of course, in the beginning - when they had just come to power - they were not like this. They were gradually influenced by the behavior of those arrogant and dictatorial rulers who had ruled before them and as a result, they began to behave in the same way. But the Islamic Revolution was not influenced. The Islamic Republic was not influenced. Those people who wanted to impose previous conducts, traditions and methods on this country and on this Revolution failed in their attempts. The Revolution continues to promote Islamic and revolutionary ideas. It continues to promote ideas which are related to independence, national resistance, domestic progress and justice and it continues to make efforts in order to achieve these great goals. All of these are the issues of the Revolution. These are important things. This is a reality.
Imam Khamenei, [Mar 6, 2014]