Lech Walesa Quotes
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I will talk and act, not on my knees, but with prudence.
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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.
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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.
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I can't imagine the right wing trying to unite without my participation.
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I risked my life.
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We were hoping Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America. That failed.
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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.
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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.
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Now is the era of intellect, information and the Internet.
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No minority should climb all over the majority.
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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.
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The people in Poland had to deal with painful reforms.
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You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.
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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.
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It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
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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.
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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.
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One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.
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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.
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I decided to get to know my opponents and their arguments.
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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.
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I have a vision, and I know I'm right.
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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.
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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.