Quotes By Lech Walesa

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 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.

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

My health is very much improved.

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

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

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

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.

I want to light the lights of patriotism.

I have more than 100 honorary Ph.D.s.

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.

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!

I had my own battle tactics.

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.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.

Authority must be respected and chosen wisely.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 cannot stand for more than half an hour in one place.

I risked my life.

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.