Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I represent the concept that pluralism is essential, union pluralism. I made an oath about this.
Life creates new heroes, and new heroes always find it easiest to beat up on the previous heroes.
Let the veil of silence fall presently over what happened afterwards. Silence, too, can speak out.
This is the moment of your defeat; you have just put in the last nails in the coffin of communism.
I must tell you that the supply of words on the world market is plentiful, but the demand is falling.
You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.
It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
People always ask me, 'Lech, aren't you afraid of being killed?' And as an answer I shrug my shoulders.
President Lech Kaczynski is not at all active in Poland and his image abroad leaves a lot to be desired.
When he saw injustice, he wanted to do away with it. He saw communism, and he wanted to put an end to it.
"It all came from there," Lech Walesa said, pointing to a TV when a reporter asked him why communism fell.
We have travelled so far in our technical advancements that we are no longer located in our own countries.
The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.
He who once became aware of the power of Solidarity and who breathed the air of freedom will not be crushed.
I made the right decisions, I set everything on the right course, the reforms are going in the right direction.
The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.
Without a single shot we've managed to liberate the world of communism but now there is a need for a global solidarity.
[Without Pope John Paul II] there would be no end of Communism or at least much later, and the end would have been bloody.
I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things.
I allowed myself to be taken in by the intellectuals. I believed too much in the Polish intellectuals and followed their advice.
For now, capitalism is working to produce more money but does not see the people. This problem is getting worse across the world.
Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.
I don't have regrets I didn't spend more time with my family because I've lived my life to the full, and you can't look back in regret.
We must be courageous but also reasonable. The world admires us for walking a tightrope without falling off. It asks us to keep our balance.
I realize that the strivings of the Polish people gave rise, and still do so, to the feelings of understanding and solidarity all over the world.
My struggle led to the reunification of Germany and the creation of the state of Europe. We destroyed the borders; globalisation is on the horizon.
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
I believed it would succeed. It was Polish Solidarity and its victory that put an end to the old era when what mattered were borders and rival blocs.
You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?
We need to agree on common values for all religions as soon as possible, a kind of secular Ten Commandments on which we will build the world of tomorrow.
The defense of our rights and our dignity, as well as efforts never to let ourselves to be overcome by the feeling of hatred - this is the road we have chosen.
The politicians always told us that the Cold War stand-off could only change by way of nuclear war. None of them believed that such systemic change was possible.
In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind.
When I was fighting communism, there was rapid development of satellite television and cell phones, and communism, to survive, would have to block all these information devices.
Obviously people want social calm, but if you do not let clever and ingenious people to participate, obviously there must be some dormant volcano that will erupt, sooner or later.
After the war, Germany fully confessed to all its dirty tricks. It's necessary to is draw a line under the past, even if people did something evil. Until we do, wounds won't heal.
My youth passed at the time of the country's reconstruction from the ruins and ashes of the war in which my nation never bowed to the enemy paying the highest price in the struggle.
Our firm conviction that ours is a just cause and that we must find a peaceful way to attain our goals gave us the strength and the awareness of the limits beyond which we must not go.
Communism prevents organizations from developing by stopping the flow of information. The system is based on police and listening devices and triggers the worst characteristics in humans.
It is not difficult to censor foreign news. What is difficult today is to censor one's own thoughts, To sit by and see the blind man On the sightless horse, riding into the bottomless abyss.
This conviction brought me, in the summer of 1978, to the Free Trade Unions - formed by a group of courageous and dedicated people who came out in the defense of the workers' rights and dignity.
Irrespective of todays judgment and the price we had to pay in this generation, we were able to close an epoch of divisions, different blocs and borders, opening the way for an era of globalization.
What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.
Up to the 20th century, we can say that this whole period was an Earth epoch, 'Earth' meaning the riches of the earth, simple physical work. That is why there were wars, the movement of frontiers, war over riches.
When I recall my own path of life I cannot but speak of the violence, hatred and lies. A lesson drawn from such experiences, however, was that we can effectively oppose violence only if we ourselves do not resort to it.
The hope of the nation which throughout the nineteenth century had not for a moment reconciled itself with the loss of independence, and fighting for its own freedom, fought at the same time for the freedom of other nations.
Communism is a monopolistic system, economically and politically. The system suppresses individual initiative, and the 21st century is all about individualism and freedom. The development of technology supported these directions.
My most ardent desire is that my country will recapture its historic opportunity for a peaceful evolution and that Poland will prove to the world that even the most complex situations can be solved by a dialogue and not by force.
Lying at the root of the social agreements of 1980 are the courage, sense of responsibility, and the solidarity of the working people. Both sides have then recognized that an accord must be reached if bloodshed is to be prevented.
The sole and basic source of our strength is the solidarity of workers, peasants and the intelligentsia, the solidarity of the nation, the solidarity of people who seek to live in dignity, truth, and in harmony with their conscience.