Lech Walesa Quotes

Our protest was a cry for freedom and for civil rights. We had to be seen because we couldn’t be heard.

We want democracy, we want human rights, we want civil liberties, but we will do it our way.

Protests, such as those in favor of labor rights, women's suffrage, civil rights and gay rights, helped to make America as great as it is.

I want a country where you can express different ideas peacefully and not be bothered and arrested unfairly for it. I want a country where you shouldn't be scared to say that you are an atheist, for example.

I wore a uniform to stand up for all rights and that means I don't pick or choose which I defend, whether it's for equality rights or women's rights. I've been consistent on that in my public life. I've also stood up for religious freedom, conscience rights of freedom of speech.

Aggressive civil disobedience should be confined to a vindication of the right of free speech and free association.

I think there is a heritage which I'm proud of, which is a fight for democracy, a fight for social justice, a fight for freedom. My grandfather went to jail or exile six times in his life, fighting for his principles for democracy, or for his country. And my father twice.

In Vietnam we have no political prisoners. No one is arrested or jailed for his or her speech or point of view. They are put in jail because they violated the law.

A lot of prophets have gone to jail.

I did become American citizen in order to vote. I lived in this country for a very long time and I finally reached the point where I thought, I'm often sticking my neck out on various issues as all human beings have a right to do.

Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all.

The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual.

The systematic dismantling of reproductive rights, much like the takedown of collective bargaining, has been taking place in full view.

I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity.

The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed.

When the women's liberation movement began, when people began protesting against the Vietnam War, civil rights movement, at the beginning of those movements, the majority of the country was not with them, did not believe in the basic principles of any of those philosophies.

I say let's go back to a truer use of the word 'freedom.' Let's start with President Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. I would add the freedom to bargain collectively. Those freedoms are under attack today.

… a Workers’ Republic founded on the principles of social justice sustained by democratic institutions and guaranteeing civil and religious liberty and equal opportunities to achieve happiness to all citizens who render service to the community.

Shame! Shame on this House! A civilized society does not stifle opposition. It meets it.

The right of peaceable assembly and of petition ... is the constitutional substitute for revolution.

While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of a civil society …. This will come.

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and ‘I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for which I am prepared to die for.

Much of the civil rights work of this century will entail championing digital rights.

Women today should have the same rights as men. And all citizens should have the right to speak their minds without fear of imprisonment.