Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

50 Sourced Quotes

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.

Mikhail Gorbachev
The time has come to choose a new direction of global development, to opt for a new civilization.

Mikhail Gorbachev
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
During the last six years we have discarded and destroyed much that stood in the way of a renewal and transformation of our society. But when society was given freedom it could not recognize itself, for it had lived too long, as it were, "beyond the looking glass". Contradictions and vices rose to the surface, and even blood has been shed, although we have been able to avoid a bloodbath. The logic of reform has clashed with the logic of rejection, and with the logic of impatience which breeds intolerance.

Mikhail Gorbachev
I have long ago made a final and irrevocable decision. Nothing and no one, no pressure, cither from the right or from the left, will make me abandon the positions of perestroika and new thinking. I do not intend to change my views or convictions. My choice is a final one.
It is my profound conviction that the problems arising in the course of our transformations can be solved solely by constitutional means. That is why I make every effort to keep this process within the confines of democracy and reforms.

Mikhail Gorbachev
The guilt of Stalin and his immediate entourage before the Party and the people for the mass repressions and lawlessness they committed is enormous and unforgivable.

Mikhail Gorbachev
It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.

Mikhail Gorbachev
I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.

Mikhail Gorbachev
I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes.

Mikhail Gorbachev
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
Man is beginning to explore the galaxy. But how much remains undone on earth?

Mikhail Gorbachev
I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Being resolute today means to act within the framework of political and social pluralism and the rule of law to provide conditions for continued reform and prevent a breakdown of the state and economic collapse, prevent the elements of chaos from becoming catastrophic.
All this requires taking certain tactical steps, to search for various ways of addressing both short- and long-term tasks. Such efforts and political and economic steps, agreements based on reasonable compromise, are there for everyone to see.

Mikhail Gorbachev
If the Russian word "perestroika" has easily entered the international lexicon, this is due to more than just interest in what is going on in the Soviet Union. Now the whole world needs restructuring, i. e. progressive development, a fundamental change.

Mikhail Gorbachev
A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena. When we were initiating perestroika we failed to properly assess and foresee everything. Our society turned out to be hard to move off the ground, not ready for major changes which affect people's vital interests and make them leave behind everything to which they had become accustomed over many years. In the beginning we imprudently generated great expectations, without taking into account the fact that it takes time for people to realize that all have to live and work differently, to stop expecting that new life would be given from above.

Mikhail Gorbachev
The Soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.
Peace is movement towards globality and universality of civilization. Never before has the idea that peace is indivisible been so true as it is now.
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.
And, ideally, peace means the absence of violence. It is an ethical value.

Mikhail Gorbachev
To me, it is self-evident that if Soviet perestroika succeeds, there will be a real chance of building a new world order. And if perestroika fails, the prospect of entering a new peaceful period in history will vanish, at least for the foreseeable future.
I believe that the movement that we have launched towards that goal has fairly good prospects of success. After all, mankind has already benefited greatly in recent years, and this has created a certain positive momentum.

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

Mikhail Gorbachev
Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Our rockets can find Halley's comet, and fly to Venus with amazing accuracy, but side by side with these scientific and technical triumphs is an obvious lack of efficiency in using scientific achievements for economic needs, and many Soviet household appliances are of poor quality.

Mikhail Gorbachev
I began to feel the desire for something more; I wanted to do something to make things better.

Mikhail Gorbachev
After a time of rampant separatism and euphoria, when almost every village proclaimed sovereignty, a centripetal force is beginning to gather momentum, based on a more sensible view of existing realities and the risks involved. And this is what counts most now. There is a growing will to achieve consensus, and a growing understanding that we have a State, a country, a common life. This is what must be preserved first of all.

Mikhail Gorbachev
After leaving the Kremlin…my conscience was clear. The promise I gave to the people when I started the process of perestroika was kept: I gave them freedom.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.

Mikhail Gorbachev
The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism... If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.

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

Mikhail Gorbachev
I view the award of the Nobel Prize to me as an expression of understanding of my intentions, my aspirations, the objectives of the profound transformation we have begun in our country, and the ideas of new thinking. I see it as your acknowledgment of my commitment to peaceful means of implementing the objectives of perestroika.

Mikhail Gorbachev
My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.

Mikhail Gorbachev