Lech Walesa

The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards.

It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.

Freedom may be the soul of humanity, but often you have to struggle to prove it.

I believed it would succeed. It was Polish Solidarity and its victory that put an end to the old era when what mattered were borders and rival blocs.

Irrespective of todays judgment and the price we had to pay in this generation, we were able to close an epoch of divisions, different blocs and borders, opening the way for an era of globalization.

Words are plentiful; deeds are precious.