Politics and ethics belong to different worlds.
ADAM MICHNIKDemagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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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 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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Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
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There were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.
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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.
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I believe that a man can only be useful to his country when he can look at it clearly.
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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.
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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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Both men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.
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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.
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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.
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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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Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
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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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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.
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