Lech Walesa Quotes

We don't need a strongman. But we need a strong country that is not subordinate to Europe.

Iraq assumes responsibility for its own future... They have got to step up.

The government should not present the anomaly which it now presents—a government the freest, perhaps the most democratic in the world with reference to local and domestic matters in which you rule yourselves as fully as any people in the world, while in your foreign affairs, your relations with other countries, whether peaceful or warlike, commercial, financial, or otherwise, you may have no more voice than the people of Japan.

The foreign policy of a socialist country is conducted on the basis of the principle of proletarian internationalism and a fundamental element of this principle is the recognition of the right of nations to self-determination.

Nations are equal in respect to each other, and entitled to claim equal consideration for their rights, whatever may be their relative dimensions or strength, or however greatly they may differ in government, religion, or manners. This perfect equality, and entire independence of all distinct states, is a fundamental principle of public law. It is a necessary consequence of this equality that each nation has a right to govern itself as it may think proper, and no one nation is entitled to dictate a form of government or religion, or a course of internal policy, to another. No state is entitled to take cognizance or notice of the domestic administration of another state, or of what passes within it as between the government and its own subjects

There is no nation on the earth that wants, for its security, to depend on anybody else.

It was not lust for honor, nor a seeking after fame, nor blind obstinacy nor power-seeking that demanded of the Fuhrer [Adolf Hitler] our resignation from the League of Nations, but simply the clear determination to be unconditionally responsible to ourselves in enduring and mastering our own destiny.

We are not some small landlocked European country who needs the E.U. to make decisions for us or protect us from competition.

Every country has the right to own its own sovereignty.

To be called a sovereign nation, a nation has to be able to control its own borders. It is controlling your own destiny in a way, and we don't control our own borders.

Sovereignty is as necessary as ever.

I claim for Canada this, that in future Canada shall be at liberty to act or not act, to interfere or not interfere, to do just as she pleases, and that she shall reserve to herself the right to judge whether or not there is cause for her to act.

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.

Are Iraqis ready to carry the responsibility for their country? Is Iraq ready to be its own master? We want to be the masters of ourselves and to carry our responsibilities in this region.

A world in which others controlled the course of their own development, would be a world in which the American system would be seriously endangered.

Just as the United States doesn't like others to take charge, other countries also don't like the United States to play a dominant role in the United Nations.

Dignity is the issue that vexes billions of people around the world, not democracy…. People don't like to be told what to do by outsiders … Foreign intervention offends people's dignity.

Our sole aim was, by virtue of this war, to rid ourselves of the lot of them, however many international decisions there were. Each one represented a blow to our...independence.

National boundaries are blurred by advanced communications and global commerce, and by the decisions of States to yield some sovereign prerogatives to larger, common political associations.

...The right to self-determination refers to the right of a given population (usually a nation) to create its own future more or less free from external coercion, but within the limits of the historical realities with which it is faced.

This nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth.

The government should help and guide the weak and small racial groups within its national boundaries toward self-determination and self-government. It should offer resistance to foreign aggression, and simultaneously, it should revise foreign treaties in order to restore our equality and independence among the nations.

I just think it is entirely normal for the United Kingdom to be an independent nation state.

If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence.

No self-respecting country - especially one with our clout and proud history - should sign up to a proposal that surrenders the power to veto our foreign and trade policy to another entity.