Józef Piłsudski

"I am not going to dictate to you what you write about my life and work. I only ask that you not make me out to be a 'whiner and sentimentalist.'"

"Comrades, I took the red tram of socialism to the stop called Independence, and that's where I got off. You may keep on to the final stop if you wish, but from now on let's address each other 'Mister'…"

"Poland can have nothing to do with the restoration of the old Russia. Anything rather than that – even Bolshevism."

"You, the Poles, have a funny nature. When the people going along the road are attacked by a dog with its insistent and noisy barking, you immediately feel like jumping off the vehicle, standing on all…"

"All that we can gain in the west depends on the Entente — on the extent to which it may wish to squeeze Germany, there are doors that open and close, and it depends on who forces them open and how far…"

"Only the sword now carries any weight in the balance for the destiny of a nation."

"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat."

"They are all more or less disguised imperialists, including revolutionists. The trait of these minds, always longing for the absolute, is a vivid centralism. They loathe varieties, cannot conciliate d…"