He who puts out his hand to stop the wheel of history will have his fingers crushed.

I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things.

I knew right from the start that those who carried me on their shoulders will hurl stones at me one day. How was I to tell the workers 'now you will all be jobless'? But we had no choice.

Our national history has so often filled us with bitterness and the feeling of helplessness.

This conviction brought me, in the summer of 1978, to the Free Trade Unions - formed by a group of courageous and dedicated people who came out in the defense of the workers' rights and dignity.

Dictators and oppressors should continue to fear me because I will be here for a long time.