FAMOUS POLISH QUOTATIONS

Great men and women throughout history are remembered for their magnificent oratory, probably much more so than for their valiant, or infamous deeds. Quotations have always captured our attention and fascination. They exquisitely encapsulate in a few words the scope of human understanding, thoughts and ideas and is a skill that is almost tantamount to wizardry. Who among us does not instantly recognize the following quotations, words which will endure for posterity.  Neither shall we forget their names for they have been written into our collective consciousness.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills: we shall never surrender.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

Be not afraid.

These are inspiring words but there remain a treasure chest of many other great quotations which have yet to capture our attention. The following are a collection of Polish quotations which I have gathered laboriously from countless sources, from famous writers, musicians, and film makers. I would have included many more, but unfortunately many quotes have not been translated to English. These quotations serve to inspire, amaze, educate, liberate, and sometimes, even amuse. The best quotations, I believe, are those which captured the sentiments of a nation in one moment of history, and thus preserved it for all time. Quotations are the signposts of our society - the good ones inspire us to become better than ourselves, while the bad ones alert us to danger, or alas, lead us astray. In any event quotations invite us to delve deeper to explore its meaning, and to understand its past. That is the mission.

To be defeated and not submit, is victory;
to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.
Jozef Pilsudski

 In comparison with the NKVD,
the Gestapo methods
are child's play.  

 Leopold Okulicki

Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory.          Irena Sendler

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

  Pope John Paul II

I belong to a nation which over the past centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force.

 Lech Walesa

 

But if Russia is to be part of this larger zone of peace it cannot bring into it its imperial baggage. It cannot bring into it a policy of genocide against the Chechens, and cannot kill journalists, and it cannot repress the mass media.       Zbigniew Brzezinski

Warsaw is not waiting for empty words of praise, for expressions of recognition, not for assurances of sympathy. Warsaw is waiting … Warsaw is waiting … for weapons and ammunition.  
  General Kazimierz Sosnkowski

Polish soldiers fight 

for freedom

of other nations 

but dies only

 for Poland. 

General Stanislaw Maczek 

Comrades, I took the red tram of socialism to the stop named Independence, but that's where I got off.

Jozef Pilsudski

This homage has been rendered not to me - for the Polish soil is fertile and does not lack better writers than me - but to the Polish achievement, the Polish genius.         
Henryk Sienkiewicz 

 

The Holocaust committed by the Nazis turned this country, where most of the European Jews used to live and where their culture used to flourish, into a massive grave. This is why initiatives to revive Jewish culture in Poland is so important.
  Marek Belka

 

Ludzi coraz więcej, a człowieka coraz mniej -  

There is more and more people in the world, but less and less humanity.

          Edward Stachura







 

It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph. 

 Henryk Sienkiewicz

It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.  Bronislaw Geremek





 
May God permit us both
to return to a free 
and independent
Poland.
General Wladyslaw Anders

But I am a Christian Jew. I am a practicing Catholic. Although I am not a heretic, still my faith tells me the second original sin has been committed by humanity: through commission, or omission, or self-imposed ignorance, or insensitivity, or self-interest, or hypocrisy, or heartless rationalization....This sin will haunt humanity to the end of time. It does haunt me. And I want it to be so.      Jan Karski 

My most ardent desire is that my country will recapture its historic opportunity for a peaceful evolution and that Poland will prove to the world that even the most complex situations can be solved by a dialogue and not by force.    Lech Walesa

 
During the first 3 years
at Auschwitz, 
2 million people died; 
over the next 2 years -
3 million.   Witold Pilecki

 

So I think that I can say, as the President of Poland, we're proud that I am coming from Poland, which is different and what's more important, much better than before. President Aleksander Kwasniewski







 
There is a fundamental difference between the Polish experience of the state and the Russian experience.  In the Polish experience, the state was always a foreign power. So, to hate the state was a patriotic act.    Ryszard Kapuscinski

[Lenin was] merely a psychopath to whom ideas barely mattered and whose only motivation is to dominate and to kill.        Richard  Edgar Pipes 







To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.  Copernicus 




 


The weakest link in the chain is also the strongest. It can break the chain.  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec







Poland is an ally of the United States of America.  It was our duty to show that we are a reliable, loyal and predictable ally.  America needed our help, and we had to give it.  Adam Michnik





 
We expected that people were just waiting for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or at least for its retreat, and they were going to be full of initiative in all areas of life - in culture, in economy and in politics.  Andrzej Wajda

I did the following routine during practice:
round off, whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, flip, double back straight 
with four twists.
Jozef Wadecki

When the world is shifting and new competitors arise, standing still is not sufficient. Institutions and procedures that have worked in the past are not enough. Incremental change is not enough. You have to adapt fast enough even to retain your position.  
Mr. Radek Sikorski (Foreign Minister of Poland)




In a democracy, one does not know what the next government will be like. Under fascism there is no next government.    
        Michal Kalecki



  



It is not so important what I did or how I did it but what is between the notes. That is what matters.  Pope John Paul II said at the beatification of Fra Angelico, "his belief became art, which in turn became faith. The art became a prayer.  You don't have to have a strong belief to make religious art but art and faith follow similar paths.     Henryk Gorecki
 


 

All the common people kissed my hands, my feet, my clothes; others only touched me, saying, 'Ah, let us kiss so valiant a hand!

King John III Sobieski (an excerpt from a letter written to his wife, after victory in the Battle of Vienna)










He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word.  The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.     Joseph Conrad


 

The difference between western and eastern intellectuals is that the former have not been kicked in the ass enough.   Witold Gombrowicz







The Pole listening to Chopin listens to the voice of his whole race.   Ignace Paderewski

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.  Marie Sklodowska (Curie)

Normal love isn't interesting. I assure you that it's incredibly boring.   
Roman Polanski




 



There are no miracles.
There is only what one does oneself.
Tamara de Lempicka








 



I am the master! I stretch forth my hands, even to the skies! I lay my hands upon the stars, as on the crystal wheels of the harmonica. Now fast, now slow, as my soul wills, I turn the stars. I weave them into rainbows, harmonies. I feel immortality! I create immortality!  
             Adam Mickiewicz




 
 
It is only our exactions of life that are terrible. It is only our impossible conceptions of beauty and good and justice that are terrible--because they never are realized, and at the same time they prevent us taking life as it is. That is the real source of all our sorrow and suffering.  
Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont

We have to oppose the widespread view that if the Russians are provoking us, we shouldn`t react because that could be perceived as a confirmation of Poland`s alleged Russophobia.  Let`s remember that Russia is not only provoking us but also checking how far it can go.  Recently, it went definitely too far.  We must react when we have to do with obvious nonsense, like the Russian foreign ministry`s recent statement that Yalta resulted in a strong, free, and democratic Poland.  President Lech Kaczynski

President Lech Kaczynski

December 23, 2005 to April 10, 2010

Memorial to President Lech Kaczynski

A year ago, President Lech Kaczynski was on his way to Smolensk, Russia with 100 members of his delegation to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.  He was planning to make an important speech to all those presiding at the ceremony, at which Putin would also be present. That speech was never heard. In the blink of an eye, Poland has lost it's President and the creme of Polish government - their voices silenced forever. But our voices carry on, and it is with this in mind that I reproduce that speech in Polish and translated to French, and Italian.

I dedicate this blog to the memory of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and the members of the delegation who perished in the plane crash on April 10, 2010. They will always be remembered.

Dear Representatives of the Katyn Families Ladies and Gentlemen!

In April 1940, over 21 thousand Polish prisoners from concentration camps and prisons were murdered by the NKVD. The genocide was the will of Stalin, at the behest of the highest authorities of the Soviet Union. Alliance of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939 reached a terrifying climax in the Katyn massacre. Not only in the Katyn forest, also in the Tver, Kharkov and other known and unknown places of execution were killed citizens of the Second Republic, the people who formed the foundation of our statehood, relentless in the service of their country. At the same time, the family of the murdered and thousands of residents were pre borderlands were sent into the Soviet Union, where they marked the path of indescribable suffering of the Polish Golgotha ​​of the East.

The most tragic station of this road was Katyn. Polish officers, priests, officials, police, border guards and prison officers were killed without trial or sentence. They were victims of the undeclared war. They were killed in violation of the laws and conventions of the civilized world. Their dignity as soldiers, Poles and people. Pits of death hid the bodies of the murdered and the truth about the crime. The world would never know. Families of victims were deprived of the right to public mourning, to proudly commemorate their loved ones. Ground covered the traces of the crime, and lies were perpetrated to erase it from human memory.

Hiding the truth about Katyn - the effect of the decision of those who masterminded the crime - has become one of the cornerstones of policy in postwar Communist Poland: the founding lie of the communist era. It was a time when the memory and the truth about Katyn to pay a high price. But relatives of the murdered and the other courageous people kept the memory, defended it and passed to future generations of Poles. Took her by the time the communist government and have assigned countrymen free, independent Poland. Therefore, all of them, especially the families of Katyn, we owe respect and gratitude. On behalf of the Republic offer sincere thanks to the fact that defending the memory of their loved ones to save a highly important dimension of our Polish consciousness and identity.

Katyn became a painful wound in Polish history, but also for decades poisoned relations between Poles and Russians. Let's make Katyn wound finally heal.. We are already on the road. We, Poles, appreciate the Russians in recent years. In this way, bringing our peoples, we should go on, without stopping it or going back.

All the circumstances of the Katyn massacre must be investigated and clarified. It is important to make known the innocence of the victims, and of all documents relating to this crime. To Katyn lie disappeared forever from the public space. We demand these actions primarily for the memory of the victims and respect for the suffering of their families. But I also demand it in the name of common values ​​that must form the foundation of trust and partnership between the neighboring nations in Europe.

Let us pay homage to the murdered and pray over their heads. Glory to the heroes! Honor their memory!

A sea of candles in front of the Presidential Palace

Remembering One Year Later: The Death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski

A year ago today, the plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and a delegation of 96 top-level government and military officials crashed near Smolensk, Russia. They were on the way to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. Shock and disbelief gave way to a period of national mourning for the President, a sorrow which still bears heavily upon their hearts and spirits of many Polish people - and Poles all around the world.

In the midst of domestic political disagreement over the issue, is the ever present public suspicion that Russia was responsible for the horrific plane crash that wiped out the President and the top creme of Polish government. Comparisons of this tragedy were made with that of the Katyn Massacre that occurred over seventy years ago near Smolensk, adding fuel to public anger. Yet again the insidious spectre of Russia looms over Polish sovereignty.

Despite attempts at rapprochement between the two nations, Russia and Poland are still as far apart as ever. At issue is the reluctance of the Russian government, ergo Putin, to fully disclose all secret information and documents relating to the Katyn Massacre. Russian-Polish relations were further strained by the enmity apparent between Putin and President Lech Kaczynski.

That Russian authorities took control of all investigative procedures immediately following the plane crash compounds public suspicion and distrust. In an article written by S. Eugene (Gene) Poteat, a retired senior CIA Intelligence Officer, a number of strange events took place prior to and after the plane crash that point to a Russian conspiracy. The plane which transported the President and his delegation had been completely refurbished and upgraded (in Russia) just four months before the fateful crash - and, in the opinion of Poteat, most likely fitted with bugging devices - and who knows what else. No wonder the Russians wouldn't let Polish investigators come anywhere near the plane wreckage. Adding to suspicions are conflicting reports; for example, Russian authorities insist that the pilot of the plane could not communicate in Russian - when in fact he spoke Russian fluently. Stranger still is the fact that the Russian traffic controller with whom he spoke had suddenly disappeared right after the crash. The Russians claimed that he went on retirement. Many other strange occurrences have taken place that need to be investigated thoroughly but have not been dealt with.

Just a few days ago the Prosecutor handed the Polish government fourteen (14) volumes of documents compiled by the Russian government,detailing the Russian investigation of the plane crash. That it took a year for them to complete is of no surprise, less still their timing in its presentation. Sources indicated that certain "anonymous sources" confirmed that the crash was due to pilot error in trying to land in heavy fog. If that were the case, then why bother writing fourteen volumes?

Poteat referred to Putin as a "master who knows his craft" wasting no time in taking compete charge of the investigation. No surprise there - Russia's motto has always been "Maintain Total Deniability".

The following is a series of four videos entitled, "Letter from Poland", narrated in English, but is largely in Polish with English sub-titles. The film was produced by a public TV station in the Netherlands, Tegenlicht Vpro and is one of the most insightful, thorough documentaries I have yet watched on the subject of this heartbreaking national tragedy.  To watch the same video with Dutch sub-titles you may log onto the link I have provided to the Tegenlicht website.

I invite you to watch these videos.  But I request also that you share the information with everyone you know. There is much about Poland that the West, in fact, the world still does not understand. Part of the problem is that many countries, including Russia, continue to speak on behalf of Poland instead of allowing Poland to speak for herself. The world is still brainwashed by Russian propaganda. The West in particular has been so easily manipulated having been fed Russian pablum since World War II. Here is the opportunity to discover the truth.


Israeli newspaper, Maariv, called the plane crash, " A Smell of Liquidation ".

Global News, a Romanian portal, suspected that it was assassination and declared that the FSB (the Russian Federal Security Service, aka KGB) was directly responsible.

Wiktor Suworow, former agent of GRU (Russian military intelligence) also considers a very strong possibility of assassination, since the FSB took the black boxes immediately after the crash "as if they had something to hide." 

In an interview with Jacek Przybysli,  Andrey Iłłarionow, former advisor to Vladimir Putin revealed some interesting facts: (English translation follows)

"Shortly after the disaster, we heard that the pilot, four times as he approached for landing. Everyone at the airport knew that there was only one landing attempt. For several days, however, repeated the lie about the four samples. Then he began to spread disinformation that the Polish pilot was inexperienced. Only after some time it appeared that he had sufficient experience. It was said that he did not know Russian, and could not communicate with the tower. This too was a lie. Finally, time has proved to be untrue disaster. The cockpit was not there any women."

 

In an interview on August 26, 2010, Antoni Macierewicz, member of Polish Parliament and former Vice-Minister of National Defense, and former Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Poland was asked if the crash was an assassination. Here is what he said,

"What we do know for sure, is that the controllers from the Smolensk control tower, after consulting with the Russian Central, and specifically, with the secretary of the General Staff of the Russian Transportation Aviation (I am saying that based on the testimony given by the controller) is that he allowed, and to be more precise, advised this plane, Tupolev 154M, to descend to the altitude below 50 meters. When they descended to this altitude, they only had 3 seconds until the crash. And this is known for sure."

Recommended Links:

Polish President's Plane: Crash Analysis

Katyn 2: Ex-GRU Officer Demand International Investigation 

Long Arms: FSB? 
Israel Uncensored News "Polish Debacle: Our Analysis Vindicated
Israel Uncensored News: "One Friend Less"

Russia's Investigation Raises Questions

Polish Plane Crash A Crime
Polish Tragedy Resounds a Year Later
Analysis: A year later Kaczynski crash dives Polish politics
Polish Probe into Kaczynski Plane Crash Extended
Twists and turns in Polish-Russian relations  (a general chrononology)




NOTE TO VISITORS:

The videos originally posted here entitled "Letter to Poland (Brief uit Polen) have been deleted by myself voluntarily. I have discovered that this video is protected by copyright and the rightful owner is a Dutch television company called Vpro Tegenlicht. Despite my efforts, I was unable to obtain their permission to post the videos on the internet. Nevertheless, you may still see the complete version of the video by logging onto their website.

Please click here.