Best 76 quotes of Lech Walesa on MyQuotes

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.

Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.

Building democracy as an imposition from abroad is a form of imperialism.

Capitalism is in crisis.

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.

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.

Communists are great capitalists, so there is no threat anymore.

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.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.

Everyone wants a voice in human freedom. There's a fire burning inside all of us.

For now, capitalism is working to produce more money but does not see the people. This problem is getting worse across the world.

Freedom may be the soul of humanity, but often you have to struggle to prove it.

Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.

He who once became aware of the power of Solidarity and who breathed the air of freedom will not be crushed.

He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel of history will have his fingers crushed.

I allowed myself to be taken in by the intellectuals. I believed too much in the Polish intellectuals and followed their advice.

I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.

I am overjoyed that I do not need a heart transplant at this time.

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.

I believe that any violation of privacy is nothing good.

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.

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.

I can't imagine the right wing trying to unite without my participation.

If once again Germany destabilizes Europe, then Germany will be not be divided again, but wiped off the map. East and West have the necessary technology in order to enforce this verdict. If Germany begins again, there is no other solution.

If there were fish in the lake, fishing would make no sense.

I got politics and economics moving and then others took over.

I had my own battle tactics.

I have always been and will be an enemy of communism, but I love all people.

I hope to work harder than ever to help people around the world.

I made the right decisions, I set everything on the right course, the reforms are going in the right direction.

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 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.

I must tell you that the supply of words on the world market is plentiful, but the demand is falling.

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.

In myself I am nothing. It all comes from God and the Virgin Mary.

I only fear God, and my wife - sometimes.

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.

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.

"It all came from there," Lech Walesa said, pointing to a TV when a reporter asked him why communism fell.

I think if I got a bicycle from my father, I should give a car to my son.

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.

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!

I want to light the lights of patriotism.

Let the veil of silence fall presently over what happened afterwards. Silence, too, can speak out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.

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.