Lech Walesa Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards.

Words are plentiful; deeds are precious.

Deep faith eliminates fear.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.

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?

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

Communism is a monopolistic system, economically and politically.

The program of our movement stems from the fundamental moral laws and order.

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.

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

There is something of the warrior in me.

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.

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

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.

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

I want to light the lights of patriotism.

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.

I will talk and act, not on my knees, but with prudence.

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.

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

I had my own battle tactics.

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.

Now is the era of intellect, information and the Internet.

I believe that any violation of privacy is nothing good.

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.

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.

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

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

Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.

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

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 only fear God, and my wife - sometimes.

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

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.