“After the French Revolution, it was not the treason of the king that was in question; it was the existence of the king. You have to be very careful when you judge and execute somebody for being a symbol.”

If you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.

A part of society in our countries would still prefer an authoritarian regime today. These are people with the mentality of Homo sovieticus. But they also exist in France – just think of Le Pen – and even in Finland and Sweden.

Politics and ethics belong to different worlds.

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.’

We still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.

Poland is an ally of the United States of America. It was our duty to show that we are a reliable, loyal, and predictable ally.

Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.

As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.

Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.

There were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.

I believe that a man can only be useful to his country when he can look at it clearly.

Both men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.

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.

The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.

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.

I consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself.

Mausoleum, n: the final and funniest folly of the rich.

In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.

You spend more of the game preparing to win in the final seconds. And that is what separates winners from losers.

Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn’t and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of them. I don’t think they understood me.

Don’t pour a lifetime of effort into a seasonal relationship. Not everyone from the pilot belongs in the finale.

When Allah decides a matter, it is done.

Your air fuels the last of my burning embers, for one final fire.