Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging in open discussion is preferable to plotting harmful actions against each other.
This quote emphasizes the importance of dialogue and debate over scheming harmful intentions. Mikhail Gorbachev advocates for constructive communication as a means to resolve conflicts rather than resorting to destructive plots that could lead to mutual harm. This perspective highlights the belief that understanding different viewpoints can prevent catastrophic outcomes.
Themes
DiscussionPolemicsDialogueDestructionCommunicationConflict
In practice
Example use cases
During a peace conference, one might quote this to encourage open dialogue.
More from Mikhail Gorbachev
All quotes βGentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Similar quotes
The soul at its highest is found like God, but an angel gives a closer idea of Him. That is all an angel is: an idea of God.
Meister EckhartRead
How can we be βfreeβ as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We canβt.
Sam HarrisRead
Magic never dies. It merely fades away.
Terry PratchettRead
Nothing is so false as human life, nothing so treacherous. God knows no one would have accepted it as a gift, if it had not been given without our knowledge.
Seneca The YoungerRead
We have been basically persuaded that we should not talk about racism.
Angela DavisRead
Making matters worse is people's natural inclination to be easy on themselves, judging themselves according to their good intentions-while holding others to a higher standard and judging them by their worst actions.
John C. MaxwellRead