He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel of history will have his fingers crushed.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

I got politics and economics moving and then others took over.
- Lech Walesa Quote

I have always been and will be an enemy of communism, but I love all people.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

Our firm conviction that ours is a just cause and that we must find a peaceful way to attain our goals gave us the strength and the awareness of the limits beyond which we must not go.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

The sole and basic source of our strength is the solidarity of workers, peasants and the intelligentsia, the solidarity of the nation, the solidarity of people who seek to live in dignity, truth, and in harmony with their conscience.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote

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.
- Lech Walesa Quote