If not me, who? And if not now, when? Mikhail Gorbachev More Quotes by Mikhail Gorbachev More Quotes From Mikhail Gorbachev The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes. Mikhail Gorbachev clothes political europe If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you. You haven't done much today. Mikhail Gorbachev basketball yesterday running Gentlemen, 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 Gorbachev nwo years fall Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences. Mikhail Gorbachev diversity differences kids Those who are late will be punished by life itself. Mikhail Gorbachev stop-procrastination late procrastination I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals. Being at one with nature. Mikhail Gorbachev nature god believe The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe. Mikhail Gorbachev leader determination europe It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times. Mikhail Gorbachev hundred leadership We had 10 years after the Cold War to build a new world order and yet we squandered them. The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently. Every US president has to have a war. Mikhail Gorbachev war order years Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor. Mikhail Gorbachev nuclear war people Now that we are rid of this syndrome of imposing the communist model on people, now that we've given them the chance to get rid of this dogma, I have to tell you Americans that you've been pushing your American way of life for decades. You thought it was perfection itself, the ultimate achievement of human thought... There has to be a different approach... Americans have to be more modest in their desires. We have to stimulate human qualities in people rather than greed. Mikhail Gorbachev greed perfection people No one, no single center, can today command the world. No single group of countries can do it. Under the current U.S. president, I don't think we can fundamentally change the situation as it is developing now. It is dangerous. The world is experiencing a period of growing global disarray. Mikhail Gorbachev president country thinking The problem the world faces today is that only one-third of the world's population lives in decent circumstances, while half the population of the world lives on one or two dollars a day. And even as we have this poverty and backwardness, we are facing a global environmental crisis. We need developmental models that will take into account the specific and unique position of each country and at the same time will address the environmental crisis. Mikhail Gorbachev unique two country You cannot go to sleep with one form of economic system and wake up the next morning with another. Mikhail Gorbachev next sleep morning In October 1917, we parted with the old world, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a new world, a world of Communism. We shall never turn off that road. Mikhail Gorbachev nwo america moving We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage. Mikhail Gorbachev ebola cutting people Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight. Mikhail Gorbachev fighting leader thinking Please remember one lesson of the 20th century. One cannot force happiness, impose happiness on nations by imposing any kind of utopia on others. The Communist model of society was a kind of imposed utopia for which the Russian people in particular paid a great price. Still, sometimes we see that attempts are being made to impose some other kind of model on the entire world - maybe a Westernized or Americanized model... This is not the way to go because this can only create conflict. Mikhail Gorbachev lessons people world Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it. Mikhail Gorbachev fighting writing moving We desperately need to recognise that we are the guests, not the masters, of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism. Mikhail Gorbachev technology development people
