Lech Walesa Quotations | Page 2

Capitalism is in crisis.

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

When he saw injustice, he wanted to do away with it. He saw communism, and he wanted to put an end to it.

The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily. They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope.

Without a single shot we've managed to liberate the world of communism but now there is a need for a global solidarity.

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.

President Lech Kaczynski is not at all active in Poland and his image abroad leaves a lot to be desired.

This is the moment of your defeat; you have just put in the last nails in the coffin of communism.

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.

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

[Without Pope John Paul II] there would be no end of Communism or at least much later, and the end would have been bloody.

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.

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

My health is very much improved.

I had my own battle tactics.

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

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.

There should be a left leg and a right leg. And I'll be in between

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

Power is only important as an instrument for service to the powerless.

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.

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

Deep faith eliminates fear.

I only fear God, and my wife - sometimes.

Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.

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.

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.

We need a global parliament, a global government and possibly a global ministry for security.

The world needs leaders of vision instead of leaders on television.

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

Words are plentiful; deeds are precious.

We respect the dignity and the rights of every man and every nation. The path to a brighter future of the world leads through honest reconciliation of the conflicting interests and not through hatred and bloodshed. To follow that path means to enhance the moral power of the all-embracing idea of human solidarity.

The Civic Platform would have had a better chance, because they are more sensible people. I hope I'm wrong.