Lech Walesa Quotes
Quotations and aphorisms by Lech Walesa:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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?
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Communists are great capitalists, so there is no threat anymore.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I use many different gadgets connected with computers; I use PCs, laptops and a Palm Pilot. I also use the Internet to visit websites, especially within Polish-language Internet. I usually go to political discussion groups and sites - of course, as I use my real name, people never believe that they are chatting with me!
~Lech Walesa
Link:
The people in Poland had to deal with painful reforms.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel of history will have his fingers crushed.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I can't imagine the right wing trying to unite without my participation.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
The program of our movement stems from the fundamental moral laws and order.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
As a nation we have the right to decide our own affairs, to mould our own future. This does not pose any danger to anybody. Our nation is fully aware of the responsibility for its own fate in the complicated situation of the contemporary world.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I most sincerely wish that the world in which we live be free from the threat of a nuclear holocaust and from the ruinous arms race. It is my cherished desire that peace be not separated from freedom which is the right of every nation. This I desire and for this I pray.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I allowed myself to be taken in by the intellectuals. I believed too much in the Polish intellectuals and followed their advice.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I have a vision, and I know I'm right.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Capitalism is in crisis.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
People always ask me, 'Lech, aren't you afraid of being killed?' And as an answer I shrug my shoulders.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
We were hoping Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America. That failed.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I had my own battle tactics.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I decided to get to know my opponents and their arguments.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
There is something of the warrior in me.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I hope to work harder than ever to help people around the world.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
My character and personality is today and tomorrow; I do not work well remembering further back.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
For now, capitalism is working to produce more money but does not see the people. This problem is getting worse across the world.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I have always been and will be an enemy of communism, but I love all people.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I believe that any violation of privacy is nothing good.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I have more than 100 honorary Ph.D.s.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Poles finished communism, and Great Britain profited significantly from this.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I made the right decisions, I set everything on the right course, the reforms are going in the right direction.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
My country is in the grips of a major economic crisis. This is causing dramatic consequences for the very existence of Polish families. A permanent economic crisis in Poland may also have serious repercussions for Europe. Thus, Poland ought to be helped and deserves help.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I represent the concept that pluralism is essential, union pluralism. I made an oath about this.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Communism is a monopolistic system, economically and politically.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Communism in Cuba will collapse sooner or later because you can't control the free flow of information. 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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I am no politician.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I'm a fatalist.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
My health is very much improved.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I cannot stand for more than half an hour in one place.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I will talk and act, not on my knees, but with prudence.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I am overjoyed that I do not need a heart transplant at this time.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
We have travelled so far in our technical advancements that we are no longer located in our own countries.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
In myself I am nothing. It all comes from God and the Virgin Mary.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Technology helped end communism by bringing in information from the outside.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I want to light the lights of patriotism.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I belong to the generation of workers who, born in the villages and hamlets of rural Poland, had the opportunity to acquire education and find employment in industry, becoming in the course conscious of their rights and importance in society.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Democracy is made up of three elements. One is whether the laws support pluralistic principles. The second is whether the people take advantage of these laws. The third element is whether the peoples' wallets are thick enough to benefit from this democracy.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Now is the era of intellect, information and the Internet.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I don't like to look a man in the eye.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I'm a man of faith. I only fear God, and my wife - sometimes.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Life creates new heroes, and new heroes always find it easiest to beat up on the previous heroes.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
No minority should climb all over the majority.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Our national history has so often filled us with bitterness and the feeling of helplessness.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I belong to a nation which over the past centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I risked my life.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Let the veil of silence fall presently over what happened afterwards. Silence, too, can speak out.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Tomorrow there will be no division to Europe and Asia. These are old concepts that would remain only on maps. Everything will be united. Companies will be united. It is a process of structures growing due to the technological progress.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I must tell you that the supply of words on the world market is plentiful, but the demand is falling.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
I got politics and economics moving and then others took over.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
People are most important.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
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.
~Lech Walesa
Link:
Share:
Permalink:
Browse: