Quotes By Lech Walesa

People are most important.

I allowed myself to be taken in by the intellectuals. I believed too much in the Polish intellectuals and followed their advice.

For now, capitalism is working to produce more money but does not see the people. This problem is getting worse across the world.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The people in Poland had to deal with painful reforms.

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.

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.

My health is very much improved.

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

Communism is a monopolistic system, economically and politically.

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

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

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.

I am no politician.

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.

I don't like to look a man in the eye.

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

I want to light the lights of patriotism.

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

I use many different gadgets connected with computers; I use PCs, laptops and a Palm Pilot. I also use the Internet to visit websites, especially within Polish-language Internet. I usually go to political discussion groups and sites - of course, as I use my real name, people never believe that they are chatting with me!

What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.

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.

One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.

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.

I believe that any violation of privacy is nothing good.