13 quotes
A year ago, we all were united in the joy over having broken free of totalitarianism. Today we all are made somewhat nervous by the burden of freedom.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1991)
I think that it is my duty today to remind you as well of the good things that have happened, accomplishments that a year ago we could scarcely have imagined.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1991)
Full freedom of speech and expression prevails in our country, and freedom of assembly and association is guaranteed.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1991)
We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
People, your government has returned to you!
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
There used to be a time when this country's president could have delivered the same New Year's Address he had given a year before, and nobody would have noticed.
Fortunately, that time has passed.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1991)
None of us is just its victim. We are all also its co-creators.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
The recent period — and in particular the last six weeks of our peaceful revolution — has shown the enormous human, moral and spiritual potential, and the civic culture that slumbered in our society under the enforced mask of apathy.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
Our country, if that is what we want, can now permanently radiate love, understanding, the power of the spirit and of ideas. It is precisely this glow that we can offer as our specific contribution to international politics.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)
I also appeal to those who have already done most of their work for society. I hope that the changes you awaited or worked for for so long will bring joy and satisfaction into your lives. We need your experience, your wisdom and your love.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1991)
Self-confidence is not pride. Just the contrary: only a person or a nation that is self-confident, in the best sense of the word, is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving its enemies and regretting its own guilt.
New Year's Address to the Nation (1990)