Czechoslovakia Quotes

• This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Russia, Government, Invasion

  "Rice: Russia Risks International Condemnation". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep, Michele Kelemen, www.npr.org. August 14, 2008.

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• Czechoslovakia provided Soviet Russia with landing fields for aircraft, thereby increasing the threat against Germany.

  Adolf Hitler

  Russia, Germany, Fields

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• Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist.

  Adolf Hitler

  War, World, World War 2

  Max Domarus, Adolf Hitler (1990). “Hitler: speeches and proclamations, 1932-1945 : the chronicle of a dictatorship”

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• You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

  Milos Forman

  France, England, Sold Out

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• The poor Americans are so busy defending the rights of Hindus in Pakistan, Moslems in India, Jews in Palestine, Koreans in Japan, Italians in Yugoslavia and Hungarians in Czechoslovakia that they simply cannot give a thought to Negroes in the United States.

  George Mikes

  Funny, Humorous, Rights

  George Mikes (1959). “How to scrape skies: the United States explored, rediscovered and explained”

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• Ever since I assumed my present office my main purpose has been to work for the pacification of Europe, for the removal of those suspicions and those animosities which have so long poisoned the air. The path which leads to appeasement is long and bristles with obstacles. The question of Czechoslovakia is the latest and perhaps the most dangerous. Now that we have got past it, I feel that it may be possible to make further progress along the road to sanity.

  Neville Chamberlain

  Past, Air, Europe

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• Because of my parents' love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

  Madeleine Albright

  Home, America, Parent

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• The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out.

  Alfred Jodl

  Munich, Pact

  "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany". Book by William Lawrence Shirer, p. 422 (Munich Conference, September 29, 1938), 1990.

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• How horrible, fantastic, incredible, it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.

  Neville Chamberlain

  Country, War, People

  Radio broadcast, 27 Sept. 1938

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• Who would have predicted... that Dubcek, who brought the tanks in in Czechoslovakia in 1968 is now being proclaimed a hero in Czechoslovakia. Unbelievable.

  Dan Quayle

  Hero, Tanks, Politics

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• I was 25 years old and pursuing my doctorate in economics when I was allowed to spend six months of postgraduate studies in Naples, Italy. I read the Western economic textbooks and also the more general work of people like Hayek. By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market. In 1968, I was glad at the political liberalism of the Dubcek Prague Spring, but I was very critical of the Third Way they pursued in economics.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Spring, Years, People

  "No Third Way Out: An Interview with Vaclav Klaus". Interview with John Fund, reason.com. June 1, 1990.

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• In Czechoslovakia there is no such thing as freedom of the press. In the United States there is no such thing as freedom from the press.

  Martina Navratilova

  United States, Publicity, Journalism

  Quoted in Lee Green, Sportswit (1984)

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• I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget... we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat... All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the darkness... We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude which has befallen Great Britain and France. Do not let us blind ourselves to that... Do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.

  Winston Churchill

  Adversity, Broken, Darkness

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• By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Understanding, Prague, Principles

  "No Third Way Out: An Interview with Vaclav Klaus". Interview with John Fund, reason.com. June 1, 1990.

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• Czech Republic is an important part of central Europe. It's clear that we must participate in European integration. I am convinced that the Czech Republic - or, in the past, Czechoslovakia - would have been one of the founding members of the EU if it hadn't been for the communist takeover in 1948.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Past, Czech Republic, Europe

  "'The Past Is the Past'". Interview with Christian Neef and Jan Puhl, Renata Hanusova, www.spiegel.de. March 13, 2006.

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• Most people have friends, but no money. I have the opposite. I don't have a chance to talk to my real friends, the ones I've had since I was 5 years old. Sometimes I wish I could bring Czechoslovakia to America. Then I would be the happiest guy in the world.

  Jaromir Jagr

  Real, Hockey, Opposites

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• Through the inspiration of Vaclav's words, the courage of his dissidence and the integrity of his leadership, Czechoslovakia successfully transitioned from an authoritarian state to a free democracy at the heart of Europe.

  Michael D. Higgins

  Integrity, Inspiration, Heart

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The first year I was in office, only about 800 people came out of the Soviet Union, Jews. By the third year I was in office... second year, 1979, 51,000 came out of the Soviet Union. And every one of the human rights heroes - I'll use the word - who have come out of the Soviet Union, have said it was a turning point in their lives, and not only in the Soviet Union but also in places like Czechoslovakia and Hungary and Poland [they] saw this human rights policy of mine as being a great boost to the present democracy and freedom that they enjoy.

  Jimmy Carter

  Hero, Rights, Years

  "Interview with President Jimmy Carter". Index of coldwar Interviews. Episode-18, nsarchive.gwu.edu.

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• When I first started to take photographs in Czechoslovakia, I met this old gentleman, this old photographer, who told me a few practical things. One of the things he said was, "Josef, a photographer works on the subject, but the subject works on the photographer."

  Josef Koudelka

  Photography, Gentleman, Firsts

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• My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

  Madeleine Albright

  Children, Europe, Parent

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• When we do in Grenada what the Soviet Union did in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, we lose moral authority and credibility.

  Jesse Jackson

  Unions, Moral, Authority

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• Vaclav Havel had moral stature. The president in first Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in many ways is a ceremonial role. And so, speaking out and having that strong moral fiber, people just knew that he told the truth to people who had only heard lies. And so I think his - that's his legacy.

  Judy Woodruff

  Strong, Lying, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Can you call a farm with a dozen geese a farm? Still, it was a little better for the Jews in Czechoslovakia. There were only two pogroms there. What's two pogroms?

  Roman Vishniac

  Two, Dozen, Littles

  "Testament to a Lost People" by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, www.nytimes.com. October 2, 1983.

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• In the old days it would have been a relatively simple matter to have checked Hitler's territorial ambitions. All you'd have needed would have been the 1914 combination of Britain, France and Russia. Indeed, if such an alliance had acted decisively to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938, Hitler might even have been overthrown by his own military. But it was not to be.

  Niall Ferguson

  Military, Ambition, Simple

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• Wolfe was drinking beer and looking at pictures of snowflakes in a book someone had sent him from Czechoslovakia... ...Wolfe seemed absorbed in the pictures. Looking at him, I said to myself, "He's in a battle with the elements. He's fighting his way through a raging blizzard, just sitting there comfortably looking at pictures of snowflakes. That's the advantage of being an artist, of having imagination." I said aloud, "You mustn't go to sleep, sir, it's fatal. You freeze to death." The League of Frightened Men

  Rex Stout

  Drinking, Book, Sleep

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