We lack a political culture, a culture of compromise. We in Poland, as well as the Hungarians, have never learned this sort of thing.
ADAM MICHNIKThere were free elections in Bulgaria, where the opposition has just won.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
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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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Both men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.
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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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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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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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We still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
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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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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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Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
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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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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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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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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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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.
ADAM MICHNIK