I belong to a nation which over the past centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force.

After the war, Germany fully confessed to all its dirty tricks. It's necessary to is draw a line under the past, even if people did something evil. Until we do, wounds won't heal.

Communism in Cuba will collapse sooner or later because you can't control the free flow of information. Communism prevents organizations from developing by stopping the flow of information. The system is based on police and listening devices and triggers the worst characteristics in humans.

When I was fighting communism, there was rapid development of satellite television and cell phones, and communism, to survive, would have to block all these information devices.

I don't have regrets I didn't spend more time with my family because I've lived my life to the full, and you can't look back in regret.

Now is the era of intellect, information and the Internet.

Obviously people want social calm, but if you do not let clever and ingenious people to participate, obviously there must be some dormant volcano that will erupt, sooner or later.

One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm.

My struggle led to the reunification of Germany and the creation of the state of Europe. We destroyed the borders; globalisation is on the horizon.

In myself I am nothing. It all comes from God and the Virgin Mary.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.

I must tell you that the supply of words on the world market is plentiful, but the demand is falling.

People are most important.

I made the right decisions, I set everything on the right course, the reforms are going in the right direction.

I allowed myself to be taken in by the intellectuals. I believed too much in the Polish intellectuals and followed their advice.

This conviction brought me, in the summer of 1978, to the Free Trade Unions - formed by a group of courageous and dedicated people who came out in the defense of the workers' rights and dignity.

I had my own battle tactics.

I risked my life.

Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.

I most sincerely wish that the world in which we live be free from the threat of a nuclear holocaust and from the ruinous arms race. It is my cherished desire that peace be not separated from freedom which is the right of every nation. This I desire and for this I pray.

I represent the concept that pluralism is essential, union pluralism. I made an oath about this.

I have a vision, and I know I'm right.

Lying at the root of the social agreements of 1980 are the courage, sense of responsibility, and the solidarity of the working people. Both sides have then recognized that an accord must be reached if bloodshed is to be prevented.

Communism is a monopolistic system, economically and politically.

I cannot stand for more than half an hour in one place.

The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.

You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?

I will talk and act, not on my knees, but with prudence.

Poles finished communism, and Great Britain profited significantly from this.

When I recall my own path of life I cannot but speak of the violence, hatred and lies. A lesson drawn from such experiences, however, was that we can effectively oppose violence only if we ourselves do not resort to it.

My youth passed at the time of the country's reconstruction from the ruins and ashes of the war in which my nation never bowed to the enemy paying the highest price in the struggle.

My most ardent desire is that my country will recapture its historic opportunity for a peaceful evolution and that Poland will prove to the world that even the most complex situations can be solved by a dialogue and not by force.

I belong to the generation of workers who, born in the villages and hamlets of rural Poland, had the opportunity to acquire education and find employment in industry, becoming in the course conscious of their rights and importance in society.

Tomorrow there will be no division to Europe and Asia. These are old concepts that would remain only on maps. Everything will be united. Companies will be united. It is a process of structures growing due to the technological progress.

The defense of our rights and our dignity, as well as efforts never to let ourselves to be overcome by the feeling of hatred - this is the road we have chosen.

Let the veil of silence fall presently over what happened afterwards. Silence, too, can speak out.

I am no politician.

I realize that the strivings of the Polish people gave rise, and still do so, to the feelings of understanding and solidarity all over the world.

Our national history has so often filled us with bitterness and the feeling of helplessness.

The hope of the nation which throughout the nineteenth century had not for a moment reconciled itself with the loss of independence, and fighting for its own freedom, fought at the same time for the freedom of other nations.

What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.

The program of our movement stems from the fundamental moral laws and order.

My country is in the grips of a major economic crisis. This is causing dramatic consequences for the very existence of Polish families. A permanent economic crisis in Poland may also have serious repercussions for Europe. Thus, Poland ought to be helped and deserves help.

I decided to get to know my opponents and their arguments.

There is something of the warrior in me.

You should go to the polls, organize yourself. But once lawmakers are chosen, they must be respected.

I have more than 100 honorary Ph.D.s.

I'm a fatalist.

People always ask me, 'Lech, aren't you afraid of being killed?' And as an answer I shrug my shoulders.

Communists are great capitalists, so there is no threat anymore.