Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos.

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

Life punishes those who come too late.

Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.

Women prevent the threads of life from being broken. The finest minds have always understood the peacemaking role of women.

America has a right to be a leader. This leadership should be realized through partnership, not domination.

Montreal, this wonderful town… Pearl of Canada, Pearl of the world.

When I cleared out Moscow apartment after stepping down as president, they found all kinds of wiring in the walls. It turned out that they had been spying on me all along.

You are fortunate to live here. If I were your President, I would levy a tax on you for living in San Francisco!

Sometimes, the decisions have to be taken in minutes, even seconds, and there would be no time to make the right decision. We understood that this could have ended in catastrophe.

An awareness of the need for some kind of global government is gaining ground, one in which all members of the world community would take part.

A new world order is taking shape so fast that governments as well as private citizens find it difficult just to absorb the gallop of events.

People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.

Contemporary social democracy is what I believe is the right concept.

The world's deteriorating ecology poses as great a danger to mankind today as did the nuclear standoff between the superpowers at the height of the Cold War.

If you want Russia to be a real fully developed partner, then America should invest in Russia and activate Russia as a strong nation.

It's America calling the shots in everything

I believe, as Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of life.

Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.

The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. ... If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.

My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.

We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs.

Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

The opponents of perestroika had suffered a defeat, and then they organized the coup.

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.

The socialist tradition....goes back to Jesus Christ, not (Karl) Marx.

It will not be enough to rely on experts. Ordinary citizens must become experts too. It will take public opinion on a wide scale to ensure that world leaders act.

We were nearly one of the last to realize that in the age of information science the most expensive asset is knowledge.

Man is beginning to explore the galaxy. But how much remains undone on earth?

Every US President has to have a war.

I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.

What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.

The new European Soviet.

A New World Order is required to deal with the Climate Change crisis.

Even today, a majority of people surveyed say that they regret the fact that the USSR collapsed. But only 9 percent say that they would want it back.

The guilt of Stalin and his immediate entourage before the Party and the people for the mass repressions and lawlessness they committed is enormous and unforgivable.

History is a capricious creature. It depends on who writes it.

Sometimes its difficult to accept, to recognise ones own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for that.

The most important thing is who counts the votes.

God has given us enough wisdom to make improvements in our relations.

The human race has entered a stage where we are all dependent on each other. No other country or nation should be regarded in total separation from another, let alone pitted against another.

It is really important to solve the problem of rational utilization and distribution of wate supplies. I dare say, the shortage of fresh water is the major ecological problem of this moment.

Every part of our program of perestroika - and the program as a whole, for that matter - is fully based on the principle of more socialism and more democracy.

Ideally, peace means the absence of violence. It is an ethical value.

In Russia, there are those who make their money in criminal ways, but I earn everything myself.

The time has come to develop integrated global policies.

Putin wants to stay in power, but not so that he can finally solve our most pressing problems: education, health care, poverty.

The Union was destroyed against the will of the people, and it was done deliberately - with the participation of the Russian leadership, on the one hand, and that of the putschists, on the other.

For the first time ever, we have confronted in reality the sinister power of uncontrolled nuclear energy.