I can’t remember any text of mine where I said that one should fight Hitler without violence; I’m not an idiot.
ADAM MICHNIKThe call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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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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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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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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They want a gradual coup. If Orbán stayed in power in Hungary or if Kaczynski were to win an election in our country, it would be dangerous.
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Politics and ethics belong to different worlds.
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Both men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.
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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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Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arabs can be elected to the parliament in a democratic election.
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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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There were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.
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Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.
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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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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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Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
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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.
ADAM MICHNIK






