Although there is a strong desire for freedom in the countries of Eastern Europe, there is no democratic tradition, so that the risk of anarchy and chaos continues to exist.
ADAM MICHNIKWe lack a political culture, a culture of compromise. We in Poland, as well as the Hungarians, have never learned this sort of thing.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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Sometimes the type of person from the old machine, who is everything but an appealing figure, happens to win an election. But democracy applies to everyone, not just the noble and the clever.
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The main difference between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution was that the former was mostly the work of Communist party members and others who wanted to bring about ‘socialism with a human face.’
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Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
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Even though we are not sure of the links, Iraq was one of the countries that did not lower its flags in mourning on 9/11.
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France can never accept that it is no longer a dominating power in the world of culture. This is true both of the French right and the French left. They keep thinking that Americans are primitive cowboys or farmers who do not understand anything.
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Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
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This is why we will never again say that Chamberlain is no better than Hitler, Roosevelt no better than Stalin, and Nixon no better than Mao Zedong, even if we do condemn Roosevelt for Yalta, Chamberlain for Munich, and Nixon for Watergate.
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I consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself.
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If you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.
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Kaczynski appointed a judge to the position of deputy justice minister who had once sentenced current President Bronislaw Komorowski to a prison term.
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The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.
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In a democracy, the government is a reflection of society because people are elected.
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I can’t remember any text of mine where I said that one should fight Hitler without violence; I’m not an idiot.
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Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it.
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I think it’s always dangerous to make political arguments in a religiously ideological way. And it’s very dangerous to treat as traitors to the American nation those who think differently.
ADAM MICHNIK