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.
ADAM MICHNIKThe real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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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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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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After the fall of communism in Poland, we had a post-communist as president for two terms: Aleksander Kwasniewski. He was very good. He brought Poland into NATO and the European Union.
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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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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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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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We lack a political culture, a culture of compromise. We in Poland, as well as the Hungarians, have never learned this sort of thing.
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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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I consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself.
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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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The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.
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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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Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
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We still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
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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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Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
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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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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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Both men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.
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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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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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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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If you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.
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America needed our help, and we had to give it.
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