If not me, who? And if not now, when?

There should be competition and exchanges between different countries, but there are certainly certain universal values, and that is freedom and democracy.

A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing.

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.

Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government.

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth.

America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.

I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.

What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.

I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century... This is a problem that cannot be postponed.