203 Quotes by Mikhail Gorbachev

On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'

We were nearly one of the last to realize that in the age of information science the most expensive asset is knowledge.

I believe, as Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of life

The emerging 'environmentalization' of our civilization and the need for vigorous action in the interest of the entire global community will inevitably have multiple political consequences. Perhaps the most important of them will be a gradual change in the status of the United Nations. Inevitably, it must assume some aspects of a world government.

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.

The world's deteriorating ecology poses as great a danger to mankind today as did the nuclear standoff between the superpowers at the height of the Cold War.

The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.

People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.

We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs