If you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.
ADAM MICHNIKDo 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.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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The call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
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Today we reject the notion of equality between a regime that belongs to the democratic world – even if it is conservative and disagreeable – and a totalitarian dictatorship, whether its colors are black, red, or green.
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America needed our help, and we had to give it.
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I think you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfeld is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein.
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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.
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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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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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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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Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
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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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There were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.
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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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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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In a democracy, the government is a reflection of society because people are elected.
ADAM MICHNIK