“In a democracy, the government is a reflection of society because people are elected.”

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.

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.