Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.
ADAM MICHNIKPolitics and ethics belong to different worlds.
More Adam Michnik Quotes
-
-
America needed our help, and we had to give it.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
The call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
ADAM MICHNIK -
Kaczynski appointed a judge to the position of deputy justice minister who had once sentenced current President Bronislaw Komorowski to a prison term.
ADAM MICHNIK -
I can’t remember any text of mine where I said that one should fight Hitler without violence; I’m not an idiot.
ADAM MICHNIK -
Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
We still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.’
ADAM MICHNIK -
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 MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK -
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.
ADAM MICHNIK