Lech Walesa

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

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

“We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“My character and personality is today and tomorrow; I do not work well remembering further back.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Technology helped end communism by bringing in information from the outside.”

“You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.”

“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.”

“Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.”

“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 national history has so often filled us with bitterness and the feeling of helplessness.”