293 quotes found
"The Soviet defeat by Poland in 1920 left a deep enmity. This was to help lead, first, to the persecution of the Polish minority in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, notably with the murderous ‘Polish Operation’ of 1937–8, then to Soviet alliance with Nazi Germany in partitioning Poland out of existence in 1939, and to a marked hostility toward Polish nationalism as the Germans were driven back in 1944. In the case of Poland, the Soviet animus against the post-World War One settlement found particular focus."
"Koreans were only the first ethnic group to come under suspicion. Balkars, Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Greeks, Ingushi, Meskhetians, Kalmyks, Karachai, Poles and Ukrainians - all these different nationalities were subjected to persecution by Stalin at various times. The rationales for this policy subtly mixed the languages of class and race. Baltic Germans were 'kulak colonizers to the marrow of their bones'. Poles were informed: 'You are being de-kulakized not because you are a kulak, but because you are a Pole.' One internal OGPU report contained the telling phrase Raz Poliak, znachit kulak: 'If it's a Pole, then it must be a kulak.' As early as March 1930 thousands of Polish families were being deported eastwards from Byelorussia and the Ukraine, partly because of their resistance to collectivization and partly because the authorities feared they planned to emigrate westwards. There was a fresh wave of deportations in 1935, which removed more than eight thousand Polish families from the border regions of Kiev and Vinnitsya to eastern Ukraine. Two years later, an investigation into what was alleged to be 'the most powerful and probably the most important diversionist-espionage networks of Polish intelligence in the USSR' led to the arrest of no fewer than 140,000 people, nearly all of them Poles."
"Ich habe den Befehl gegeben – und ich lasse jeden füsilieren, der auch nur ein Wort der Kritik äußert – daß das Kriegsziel nicht im Erreichen von bestimmten Linien, sondern in der physischen Vernichtung des Gegners besteht. So habe ich, einstweilen nur im Osten, meine Totenkopfverbände bereitgestellt mit dem Befehl, unbarmherzig und mitleidslos Mann, Weib und Kind polnischer Abstammung und Sprache in den Tod zu schicken."
"I have issued the command – and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language."
"We must remember that anti-Semitism is a disease, just like racism and anti-Polonism. Good people should never be silent on such matters. We must speak out loud: we do not accept this!"
"Poland’s existence is intolerable and incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany’s life. Poland must go and will go — as a result of her own internal weaknesses and of action by Russia — with our aid. For Russia, Poland is even less tolerable than it is for us; Russia will never put up with Poland's existence. With Poland, one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles System will fall. To attain this goal must be one of the firmest aiming points of German politics, because it is attainable. Attainable only by means of, or with the help of, Russia. [...] The restoration of the border between Germany and Russia is the precondition for regaining strength of both sides. Germany and Russia within the borders of 1914 should be the basis for an agreement between us [...]."
"During and after the 1830-1831 insurrection many Russian writers voluntarily participated in anti-Polish propaganda. Gogol wrote Taras Bulba, an anti-Polish novel of high literary merit, to say nothing about lesser writers."
"During the preceding eighty years the Germans had sacrificed to the Reich all their liberties; they demanded as a reward the enslavement of others. No German recognized the Czechs or Poles as equals. Therefore, every German desired the achievement which only total war could give. By no other means could the Reich be held together. It had been made by conquest and for conquest; if it ever gave up its career of conquest, it would dissolve."
"Maintain the purity of German blood! That applies to both men and women! Just as it is considered the greatest disgrace to become involved with a Jew, any German engaging in intimate relations with a Polish male or female is guilty of sinful behavior. Despise the bestial urges of this race! Be racially conscious and protect your children. Otherwise you will forfeit your greatest asset: your honor!"
"We should make a large action of the liquidation of the Polish element. As the German armies withdraw, we should take advantage of this convenient moment for liquidating the entire male population in the age from 16 up to 60 years. We cannot lose this fight, and it is necessary at all costs to weaken Polish forces. Villages and settlements lying next to the massive forests, should disappear from the face of the earth."
"Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away. The perpetrators could not determine the province's future. But at least they could determine that it would be a future without Poles."
"Liquidate all Polish traces. Destroy all walls in the Catholic Church and other Polish prayer houses. Destroy orchards and trees in the courtyards so that there will be no trace that someone lived there... Pay attention to the fact that when something remains that is Polish, then the Poles will have pretensions to our land"."
"Jeszcze Polska nie umarła, Kiedy my żyjemy Co nam obca moc wydarła, Szablą odbijemy."
"Jeszcze Polska nie zginóła. Bziałoczerwóna kukarda. Mniejwa łufnoszcz w Bogu, Nam została tylko wzgarda, Bo Bóg dobry spraziedliwy Nie dopuszczy tego, Żeby Polok nieszczeszliwy Ni mniał kraju swego."
"Hej, dziesięciu! czas do dzieła, Ciemna zgliszcz drużyno! Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, Gdy za Polskę giną!"
"Staś wypoczywał i polował. Znalazłszy wśród narzędzi karawany dłuta i młotki zajmował się prócz tego w chłodniejszych godzinach wykuwaniem na wielkiej gnejsowej skale napisu: "Jeszcze Polska...", albowiem chciał, żeby pozostał jakiś ślad pobytu ich w tych stronach. Anglicy, którym przetłumaczył napis, dziwili się, że chłopcu nie przyszło na myśl uwiecznić na tej afrykańskiej skale swego nazwiska. Ale on wolał wyryć to, co wyrył."
"Uderzenie tak sztuczne, tak było potężne, Że struny zadzwoniły jak trąby mosiężne I z trąb znana piosenka ku niebu wionęła, Marsz tryumfalny: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła!... Marsz Dąbrowski do Polski! I wszyscy klasnęli, I wszyscy: "Marsz Dąbrowski!" chorem okrzyknęli!"
"Let this great day of concord come, when Russians will be united with you with the same feelings and, fighting for the same cause and against a common enemy, they will have the right to intone with you your national song, this hymn of Slavic unity: Poland is not yet lost."
"Obecne niepowodzenie jest chwilowe, zwycięstwo będzie po naszej stronie. I pamiętajcie: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy. I to, co nam obca przemoc wzięła, siłą odbierzemy."
"Rodacy! Wobec całego narodu polskiego i wobec całego świata pragnę powtórzyć te nieśmiertelne słowa: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy."
"Wy jesteście na tym froncie zbrojnym ramieniem Polski, wy jesteście odpowiedzią daną Niemcom za dzień 1 września 1939 roku, wy jesteście jednym żywym dowodem, że jeszcze Polska nie zginęła i nie zginie!"
"[E]ven though Poland had made a major contribution to the victory which put an end to the Second World War, in June 1945 a representative of our country was not allowed to put his signature to the United Nations Charter. We remember that event when Artur Rubinstein, seeing that there was no Polish delegation at the concert to mark the signing of the Charter, decided to play the "Dąbrowski Mazurka", Poland's national anthem, to demonstrate that "Poland was not lost yet", that Poland lived on. I am recalling this because I had a very touching moment a few days ago in the same San Francisco opera house, to which I was invited for the opening of the season. This time it was the orchestra that played the "Dąbrowski Mazurka", and at that moment the memories of the great Artur Rubinstein and his performance came back with full force and it was very touching indeed for me."
"Pokud matička Praha, perla západního slovanského světa, se začíná ztrácet v německém moři, co asi čeká Slovensko, mou drahou vlast, pro kterou je Praha zdrojem duchovní kultury? Zatížen touto myšlenkou, vzpomněl jsem si na starou polskou píseň „Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy“. Tato známá melodie vyvolala v mém srdci vzdorné „Hej, Slovaci, ešte naša slovenska reč žije“… Běžel jsem do svého pokoje, zapálil svíci a tužkou napsal do svého deníku tři verše. Píseň byla hotova v okamžiku."
"Sławna pieśń legionów polskich poczyna się od wierszy, które są godłem historii nowej: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, kiedy my żyjemy. Słowa te mówią, że ludzie mający w sobie to, co istotnie stanowi narodowość, zdolni są przedłużać byt swojego kraju niezależnie od warunków politycznych tego bytu, i mogą nawet dążyć do urzeczywistnienia go na nowo..."
"The Star-Spangled Banner celebrates the fact that, after a night of battle, the country's flag was still there. The Polish national anthem celebrates the fact that, after centuries of battle, the country is still there. This cautious, realistic anthem — "Poland is not yet lost"..."
"Polish national anthem reminds me primarily of victory. Surely every athlete will confirm my words."
"Finis [regni] Poloniæ."
"Poland is like an island on the north European plain. At times the island has been swamped by a tide of iron or steel helmets converging from Germany and Russia. At times it has drifted suddenly with the current; if the continent of Africa had drifted relatively as much as the boundaries of Poland have drifted in the last two hundred years, then Africa would at one time have touched the north pole and at another the south pole."
"With respect to us, Poland might be, in fact, considered as a country in the moon."
"The soul of Poland is indestructible... she will rise again as a rock, which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave, but which remains a rock."
"There are few virtues which the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided."
"The Poles... belong to a community which has acquired its modern sense of nationality in active opposition to the policies of the states in which they lived."
"Who only knows Latin can go across the whole Poland from one side to the other one just like he was at his own home, just like he was born there. So great happiness! I wish a traveler in England could travel without knowing any other language than Latin!"
"L’exemple d’un monarque impose et se fait suivre: Lorsqu’ Auguste buvait, la Pologne était ivre."
"The Polish soldier is a marcher of extraordinary endurance."
"Warsaw can no more be Tartar than Venice can be Teuton. Kings lose their pains and their honor in the attempt to make them so. Sooner or later, the submerged part floats to the surface and reappears. Greece becomes Greece again, Italy is once more Italy. The protest of right against the deed persists forever. The theft of a nation cannot be allowed by prescription. These lofty deeds of rascality have no future. A nation cannot have its mark extracted like a pocket handkerchief."
"Quant à l'action qui va commencer, elle se passe en Pologne, c’est-à-dire nulle part."
"Poland is an economic impossibility with no industry but Jew-baiting."
"But we cannot be blamed for not taking seriously people who, unable though they are to remember correctly any single fact from our history or to say which barbaric dialect we speak, are perfectly able instead to teach us how liberated we are in the East."
"Poles cherish a heroic image of themselves, unshared by and little known in the outside world. One of their self-glorifying images is that of the defiant Pole. According to the Polish version of history, the Czechs allowed German occupation and the Poles resisted. The Czechs accepted communism in 1948 and the Poles resisted. The Poles rebelled in 1956 and supported the uprising in Budapest, while the Czechs said nothing and remained loyal to Moscow. Poles recall the fact that they sent a food shipment to support the Hungarian rebels, but the trucks had to pass through Czechoslovakia, where they were stopped. In the complicated pecking order of central Europe’s national images, Poles say that in 1956 “the Hungarians acted like Poles, the Poles like Czechs, and the Czechs acted like pigs.” Now the Czechs, whom the Poles had sneered at under Novotny’s Stalinist anachronism, were becoming the vanguard communist nation, the one to be followed. “It was surprising to see the Czechs ahead of us. They were supposed to be the opportunists and cowards,” said Eugeniusz Smolar."
"Forbid it, England—by thine own great self, By thine own yet unviolated hearths, . . . . Let not thy minister go forth in vain: The fate of Poland now is at thy will; The Autocrat will hear and heed thy voice; England, my glorious country, speak, and save!"
"And Poland at last proclaimed: "Whoever he be that comes to me, he shall be free and equal, because I am freedom.""
"Cultivation, old civilization, beauty, history! Surprising turnings of streets, shapes of venerable cottages, lovely aged eaves, unexpected and gossamer turrets, steeples, the gloss, the antiquity! Gardens. Whoever speaks of Paris has never seen Warsaw. [...] Whoever yearns for an aristocratic sensibility, let him switch on the great light of Warsaw."
"Żeby Polska była Polską."
"A great nation, only the people are cunts."
"We shall soon have the scenes of the Polish Diets and elections re-acted here, and in not many years the fate of Poland may be that of United America."
"Well, from here I will go to Bonn and then Berlin, where there stands a grim symbol of power untamed. The Berlin Wall, that dreadful gray gash across the city, is in its third decade. It is the fitting signature of the regime that built it. And a few hundred kilometers behind the Berlin Wall, there is another symbol. In the center of Warsaw, there is a sign that notes the distances to two capitals. In one direction it points toward Moscow. In the other it points toward Brussels, headquarters of Western Europe's tangible unity. The marker says that the distances from Warsaw to Moscow and Warsaw to Brussels are equal. The sign makes this point: Poland is not East or West. Poland is at the center of European civilization. It has contributed mightily to that civilization. It is doing so today by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression. Poland's struggle to be Poland and to secure the basic rights we often take for granted demonstrates why we dare not take those rights for granted. Gladstone, defending the Reform Bill of 1866, declared, ``You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. It was easier to believe in the march of democracy in Gladstone's day -- in that high noon of Victorian optimism."
"Poland has been a source of trouble for over five hundred years."
"It has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved, but here is the proof of her life and triumph"
"This homage has been rendered not to me – for the Polish soil is fertile and does not lack better writers than me – but to the Polish achievement, the Polish genius."
"For two centuries, Poland suffered constant and brutal attacks. But while Poland could be invaded and occupied, and its borders even erased from the map, it could never be erased from history or from your hearts. In those dark days, you have lost your land, but you never lost your pride. So it is with true admiration that I can say today, that from the farms and villages of your countryside to the cathedrals and squares of your great cities, Poland lives, Poland prospers, and Poland prevails. ** Donald Trump, Remarks in Warsaw, Poland; 6 July 2017"
"Nobody who comes to Poland will be in any danger because of his race. This is not our custom, as is not pointing out similar incidents in other countries, although we know they take place. In Poland, they're a rarity."
"Через труп белой Польши лежит путь к мировому пожару."
"Un polonais – c'est un charmeur; deux polonais – une bagarre; trois polonais, eh bien, c'est la question polonaise."
"An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant."
"Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła..."
"Poland has not yet perished, So long as we still live. What the foreign force has taken from us, We shall with sabre retrieve."
"March, march, Dąbrowski, From Italy to Poland. Under your command We shall rejoin the nation."
"We'll cross the Vistula, we'll cross the Warta, We shall be Polish. Bonaparte has given us the example Of how we should prevail."
"Like Czarniecki to Poznań After the Swedish annexation, To save our homeland, We shall return across the sea."
"Deo Opt Max ac Virgini Deiparae sanctisque patronis suis divus Sigismundus Poloniae Rex campanam hanc dignam animi operumque ac gestorum suorum magnitudine fieri fecit anno salutis MDXX"
"If, traveller, the bell seems too big to you, tell me what work of Sigismund is small?"
"Dzwon królewski: Siedziałem u królewskich stóp, królewski za mną dwór: synaczek i kilka cór, Włoszka – a wielki chór kleru zawodził hymny; a dzwon wschodził. Patrzali wszyscy w górę, a dzwon wschodził – zawisnął u szczytów i z wyżyn się rozdzwonił..."
"Jak długo na Wawelu Brzmi Zygmuntowski dzwon; Jak długo z gór karpackich Rozbrzmiewa polski ton, Stać będzie kraj nasz cały, Stać będzie Piastów gród; Zwycięży Orzeł Biały, Zwycięży polski lud!"
"Ile przeżyć i wspomnień budzi w nas głos tego królewskiego dzwonu! Brzmi w tym uroczystym graniu modlitwa wieków o wolność i pomyślność Ojczyzny, a równocześnie jakieś wezwanie do uwalniania serc od wszystkiego, co jej może szkodzić, i do wznoszenia ducha ku tym wartościom, które nasze pokolenie przejęło ze wspaniałej tradycji ojców."
"Mazovia. Sand, Vistula and the forest. Mi Mazovia. Smooth, far away - under stems of humming stars, under the river of pine trees."
"Oh, how beautiful land is our Mazovia! There be clean water, and air fresher! Bigger Pine trees and girls prettier, People stronger and sky is brighter."
"Just from the capital of Masovia."
"Hey Pole, know resolute Mazovians; Ready for a fight. In war and in peace Beside their short height, Laughing, they can beat."
"I judged the Poles by their enemies. And I found it was an almost unfailing truth that their enemies were the enemies of magnanimity and manhood. If a man loved slavery, if he loved usury, if he loved terrorism and all the trampled mire of materialistic politics, I have always found that he added to these affections the passion of a hatred of Poland. She could be judged in the light of that hatred; and the judgment has proved to be right."
"On May 28 of last year, President Obama stood next to Prime Minister of Poland in Warsaw and declared he would support new rules to help more Poles get tourist visas to the United States. “If you’ve lived in Chicago and you haven’t become a little bit Polish,” Mr. Obama joked, “there’s something wrong with you.”A year later, the president made himself the target of a searing denunciation by Mr. Tusk after he referred on Tuesday to a “Polish death camp,” instead of a Nazi death camp in Poland, in bestowing a Presidential Medal of Freedom on , a hero of the Polish resistance to the Germans during World War II. Mr. Obama was guilty of “ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions,” Mr. Tusk said."
"Ani kura za darmo nie gdacze."
"Za dziękuje nic się nie kupuje. (See in the Z section)"
"Anielskie usta a szatanskie serce."
"Bez potrzeby wymówka, gotowe oskarżenie."
"Biada bez dzieci, biada i z dziećmi."
"Bierze wilk i liczone owce."
"Bóg nie opuści, kto nań się spuści."
"Bóg trójcę lubi."
"Bogaty rzadko sprawiedliwy albo sam, albo jego przodek."
"Bogu świeczkę, a diabłu ogarek."
"Bogu ufaj, a ręki przykładaj."
"Bóg pomaga temu, który sam rozwiązuje własne problemy."
"Broda nie czyni filozofa."
"Byl w Rzymie, a papieża nie widzial."
"Chociaż w ciasnocie, ale w zgodzie."
"Chudoba cnoty nie traci."
"Ciekawość to pierwszy stopień do piekła. ""
"Cierpieć z drugimi lżej."
"Co było, nie wróci."
"Okazja na nikogo nie czeka."
"Co lekko przyszło, lekko pójdzie."
"Łatwo przyszło, łatwo poszło."
"Co mnie dziś, tobie jutro."
"Co z jabłoni spadnie, niedaleko upadnie."
"Niedaleko spada jabłko od jabłoni."
"Coś posiał – zbieraj"
"Kto sieje wiatr, zbiera burzę."
"Tak się wyśpisz, jak sobie pościelesz."
"Cudze ręce lekkie, ale niespore."
"Cudze wady rychlej niż swoje obaczamy."
"Czasowi ludzie służą."
"Daj krowie w żłobie, to ona da tobie."
"Dar za dar, słowa za słowa."
"Dla chcącego nic trudnego."
"Do odważnych świat należy."
"Do tanga trzeba dwojga."
"Dobra psu i mucha."
"Doczeka się sierpa pokrzywa."
"Kto pod kim dołki kopie, ten sam w nie wpada."
"Domowe psy, choć się kąsają, wilka ujrzawszy nań się rzucają."
"Dobra wola za uczynek stoi."
"Dobre daleko słychać, a złe jeszcze dalej."
"Dobry początek to połowa roboty."
"Dobrymi chęciami jest piekło wybrukowane."
"Doktorze, sam się wylecz!"
"Dziecko, pijany i głupi zawsze prawdę powie."
"Gdy idziesz zabijać muchę, nie zabieraj ze sobą armaty."
"Gdy się człowiek spieszy, to się diabeł cieszy"
"Gdzie człowiek się śpieszy, tam diabeł się cieszy."
"Gdzie nie można przeskoczyć, tam trzeba podleźć."
"Gdzie pana kochają, tam i jego pieska głaszczą."
"Głaszcz ty kotowi skórę, a on ogon wzgórę."
"Głos ludu, głos Boga."
"Gotowe zdrowie, kto chorobie powie."
"Gwiazdki z nieba się zachciewa."
"Historia się powtarza."
"Historia lubi się powtarzać."
"I cyprysy mają swoje kaprysy."
"I uczony Homer drzemał czasem."
"Jacy rodzice, takie dzieci."
"Jak dają, to bierz."
"Jaka matka, taka Katka."
"Jaką miarką mierzysz, taką ci odmierzą."
"Jaka płaca, taka praca."
"Jaki do jedzenia, taki do roboty."
"Jaki ojciec, taki syn."
"Jakie przyczyny, takie też skutki."
"Jakie pytanie, taka odpowiedź."
"Kto chce wygrać gąsiora, trzeba ważyć kaczora."
"Jedna Jaskółka wiosny nie sprawi."
"Jeśliś szewc, pilnuj swego kopyta!"
"Jeża nie dotykaj, bo ukłuje."
"Kłamcy dobrej pamięci i dowcipu prędkiego potrzeba."
"Kogo Pan Bóg stworzy, tego nie umorzy."
"Komu nie ma rady, temu nie ma pomocy."
"Kozła doić próżno."
"Ksiądz prałat tłumaczy, a żyje inaczej."
"Kto łaskę pańską szacuje, coś w sobie niepewnego czuje."
"Kto czeka, ten się doczeka."
"Kto dwa zające goni, żadnego nie złapie."
"Kto ma żytko, ma wszystko."
"Kto nie idzie naprzód, ten się cofa."
"Kto nie ma w głowie, musi mieć w nogach."
"Kto prawdę gada, wiele slow nie potrzebuje."
"Kto prawdzie dzwoni, taki na guz goni."
"Kto rano wstaje, temu Pan Bóg daje."
"Kto łaskę pańską szacuje, coś w sobie niepew nego czuje."
"Kogo Bóg chce skarać, wtedy mu rozum odejmie."
"Nie kupuj kota w worku."
"Kropla drąży kamień."
"Kto się ożeni, to się odmieni."
"Kuj żelazo, póki gorące."
"Łakomy wszystkim zły, sobie najgorszy."
"Lekarstwo podczas, cięższe niż choroba."
"Lepiej nie dosolić, nie przesolić."
"Lepiej pózno, niż wcale."
"Lepiej umrzeć stojąc niż żyć na kolanach."
"Lepsze jedno dziś, niż dwoje jutro."
"Lepsze jest wrogiem dobrego.'"
"Lepsze imię dobre niźli bogactwa hojne."
"Lepszy grosz dany niż złoty obiecany."
"Lepszy własny chleb niż pożyczona bułka."
"Lepsza rozwaga niż odwaga."
"Lepsze zdrowie niż pieniądze."
"Lepszy wróbel w garści niż gołąb na dachu"
"Ludzi słuchaj, a swój rozum miej."
"Mowa wiatr, a pismo grunt."
"Mowa pospolita, pospolicie prawdziwa."
"Myśl długo, czyń prędko."
"Na grubą gałąź trzeba grubego klina."
"Na kulawym koniu daleko nie zajedziesz."
"Nie chwal dnia przed zachodem słońca."
"Nie ma reguły bez wyjątku."
"Nie od pracy, ale od złej doli głowa boli."
"Nieza to biją, że ukradł, ale źle schował."
"Nie trzeba dowierzać."
"Nie wierz słowom, a czynom."
"Nad możność nikogo nie pociagają."
"Niech się najbardziej wysmuknie sowa, przecie nie dojdzie sokoła."
"Niecnotliwa zazdrość, chyba w niebie jej nie masz."
"Niedaleko pada jabłko od jabłoni."
"Nie potrzeba ognia do ognia przydawać."
"Nie przyszła góra do Mahometa, Mahomet przyszedł do góry."
"Nie pytaj starego, pytaj bywałego."
"Na pochyłe drzewo wszystkie kozy skaczą."
"Nic nowego pod słońcem."
"Nie dziel skóry na niedźwiedziu."
"Nie mów „hop”, póki nie przeskoczysz."
"Nie wszystko złoto, co się świeci."
"Nim słońce wzejdzie, rosa oczy wygryzie."
""Nosił wilk razy kilka, ponieśli i wilka"."
"Nowa miotła dobrze zamiata."
"Obiecianki - cacanki."
"Od przybytku głowa nie boli."
"Od wymysłów jeszcze nikt nie umarł."
"Odmiana słodzi rzeczy."
"Okazja łysa z tyłu, z przodu ją brać trzeba."
"Pieniądze szczęścia nie dają."
"Piosnka najprzyjemniejsza każdemu, gdy go chwalą."
"Po to są pieniądze, aby je wydawać."
"Poznać błazna i bez dzwonków."
"Postawić wszystsko na jedną kartę."
"Prawda nie głaszcze."
"Prawda w winie."
"Przecież się nie pali."
"Kto buja wysoko, bywa próżny."
"Prosta droga najkrótsza."
"Punktualność jest grzecznością królów."
"Tardo amico nihil est quidquam iniquius."
"Pychy niedobry koniec bywa."
"Rannego wstania, rannej siejby i rannego ożenienia jeszcze nikt nie żałował."
"Serce nie kłamie."
"Słowa myśl pochłaniają, słowa myśli kłamią."
"Słyszy czujny, choć śpi."
"Szanuj honor od młodu."
"Śpiesz się powoli."
"Stara miłość nie rdzewieje."
"Starość, nie radość."
"Szewc bez butów chodzi."
"Ten się drapie, kogo swędzi."
"Ten się śmieje, kto się śmieje ostatni"
"Tonący brzytwy się chwyta"
"Trafiła kosa na kamień."
"Trudno naturę odmienić."
"Tu leży pies pogrzebany."
"Uwaga! Stary pies szczeka."
"Wchodząc między wrony, krakaj jak i one."
"Kiedy wszedłeś między wrony, musisz krakać jak i one"
"Więcej ludzi utonęło w kieliszku niż w morzu."
"Więcej słuchaj, a mniej mów - zawsze szkodzi zbytek słów."
"Wielcy złodzieje małych wieszają."
"Wolno bogatemu biednie żyć."
"Z deszczu pod rynnę"
"Z niczego, nic nie będzie."
"Za dziękuję nic się nie kupuje."
"Złej baletnicy przeszkadza rąbek u spódnicy"
"Żaden w swej sprawie sędzią być nie może."
"Złego początku, zły koniec."
"The hallmarks of a regime which flouts the rule of law are, alas, all too familiar: the midnight knock on the door, the sudden disappearance, the show trial, the subjection of prisoners to genetic experiment, the confession extracted by torture, the gulag and the concentration camp, the gas chamber, the practice of genocide or ethnic clansing, the waging of aggressive war. The list is endless, Better to put up with some choleric judges and greedy lawyers."
"Moira MacTaggert: Registration today, gas chambers tomorrow."
"Though it was the most efficient, Auschwitz was not necessarily the cruellest of the Nazi death camps. The first people to be gassed by the Third Reich were, as we have seen, German mental patients; they had been asphyxiated with pure carbon monoxide gas. This method was then exported to Eastern Europe, but using exhaust fumes, first in specially converted vans, then in static gas chambers equipped with large diesel engines. This was how people were killed at Sobibor, Treblinka and Belzec, the camps set up to implement the 'Action Reinhard' in the autumn of 1941. Compared with inhaling Zyklon B, which killed most victims within five to ten minutes, this was a slow way to die. Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, regarded his own methods as 'humane' compared with those of his counterpart at the last of these camps, the notoriously sadistic Christian Wirth."
"They developed out of the situation. The courts brought in a lot of people who had to be shot. I always objected to having to use the same men for firing squadrons over and over again. During that period one day my camp leader, Karl Fritzsch, came to me and asked me whether I could try to execute people with Zyklon B gas. Until that time, Zyklon B was used only to disinfect barracks which were full of insects, fleas, et cetera. I tried it out on some people sentenced to death in the cell prison and that is how it developed. I didn't want any more shootings, so we used gas chambers instead."
"I expected to die. At no time before the trial did I expect to escape with my life. Yet being executed in the gas chamber did not necessarily mean defeat. It could be one more step to bring the community to a higher level of consciousness."
"Nor did extermination policies arise from concentration policies. The Soviet concentration camp system was an integral part of a political economy that was meant to endure. The Gulag existed before, during, and after the famines of the early 1930s, and before, during, and after the shooting operations of the late 1930s. It reached its largest size in the early 1950s, after the Soviets had ceased to kill their own citizens in large numbers—in part for that very reason. The Germans began the mass killing of Jews in summer 1941 in the occupied Soviet Union, by gunfire over pits, far from a concentration camp system that had already been in operation for eight years. In a matter of a given few days in the second half of 1941, the Germans shot more Jews in the east than they had inmates in all of their concentration camps. The gas chambers were not developed for concentration camps, but for the medical killing facilities of the “euthanasia” program. Then came the mobile gas vans used to kill Jews in the Soviet east, then the parked gas van at Chełmno used to kill Polish Jews in lands annexed to Germany, then the permanent gassing facilities at Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka in the General Government. The gas chambers allowed the policy pursued in the occupied Soviet Union, the mass killing of Jews, to be continued west of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line. The vast majority of Jews killed in the Holocaust never saw a concentration camp. The image of the German concentration camps as the worst element of National Socialism is an illusion, a dark mirage over an unknown desert.."
"The prisoners [transferred to labor camps] would have been spared a great deal of misery if they had been taken straight into the gas chambers at Auschwitz."
"Believe me, it wasn’t always a pleasure to see those mountains of corpses and smell the perpetual burning."
"More people kept coming, always more, whom we hadn’t the facilities to kill. . . . The gas chambers couldn’t handle the load."
"Unlike the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States, who are often of refugee origin, the Vietnamese communities in Poland were formed of student exchanges mutually agreed between the two socialist countries. While it is common knowledge that the Soviet Union was Vietnam’s major economic benefactor in the 80s, the diplomatic relations between Poland, then a Soviet satellite state, and Vietnam are little known."
"Vietnamese immigrants began to arrive in Poland in the 1950s, initially on the basis of student exchanges. In the 1950s and 1960s, Vietnam favored fellow communist nations and rewarded students with good grades with the possibility of studying in Soviet countries. Upon finishing their studies, some former students decided to stay in Poland."
"Currently, the Vietnamese community is the biggest non-European migrant population in Poland, with an estimated population of 50,000–80,000. The Vietnamese community has been part of Polish society for many generations, and to this day Poland continues to be an attractive destination for Vietnamese immigrants."
"Vietnamese people are the largest immigrant community whose culture is not European. It is difficult to determine their number. It is currently estimated at 35 thousand. In Poland, which more frequently “sends” its citizens abroad than “welcomes” foreigners, the Vietnamese group attracts attention of scholars. What they find interesting is the manner in which Vietnamese people adapt to the Polish environment, diverse identity strategies of various groups, and the functioning of Polish-Vietnamese marriages. In the subject literature, it is highlighted that Vietnamese people usually enter the Polish community through group adaptation processes and, to a large extent, remain socially closed within their own ethnic group. Their social contacts with Poles are usually superficial and their cultural bonds with Poland are most frequently limited. Despite the above, there are Vietnamese immigrants who deeply relate to the Polish culture and have close relations with Poles, including Polish spouse."
"Against the common belief, the Vietnamese do not want to be isolated from Poles. The difficulty in the assimilation process is caused mainly by the poor command of Polish and the lack of time. Young immigrants who speak Polish, are willing to present their culture to Poles. They organise various artistic, social and cultural meetings. Maybe these activities will make Poles know the Vietnamese better and will make them see the advantages of mutual cooperation. This is especially important to Polish businessman."
"Within only two months in Warsaw, the Vietnamese had provided Polish doctors with approximately 21,000 hot meals. In addition, the community joined the nationwide action of sewing masks for doctors and donated protective masks, latex gloves and disinfectant fluid to hospitals and other public institutions. A shipment from Vietnam was also organised, containing a large number of SARS-Cov-2 virus detection tests, protective suits and disposable gloves. These activities were particularly intensified during the worst waves of infection: initially in the spring and then again in the autumn of 2020. During the first wave the actions were spontaneous, while during the second they were more organised."
"In the last decade of the 20th century, the second wave of immigration from Vietnam began - mass and much more socially diverse. Due to the lack of knowledge of foreign languages and Polish culture, this group of migrants, after arriving in Poland, needed the support of their compatriots who were already at home here. The new arrivals took advantage of family and friendly ties with the Vietnamese living in Warsaw and settled in their vicinity. Thus, hermetic Vietnamese communities began to form in Warsaw."
"It seems that the Vietnamese have made their home in Warsaw for good. Today they are no longer perceived here as exotic guests from a distant country, but as a natural part of Polish society. Young Vietnamese are successful and became recognizable in Poland."
"The Vietnamese in Poland are a very active minority. They have businesses, schools and temples. The noticeable majority of the Vietnamese in Poland deal with trade in clothes or restaurants."
"The Vietnamese have been present in Poland from the 1950s onwards and now have reached the second and third generation. The third generation is now also adults, they integrate well and adapt very quickly to Polish society. They also have a much better education than the average person in Polish society and find work in many fields."
"On the other hand, Vietnamese people are "labeled" as not integrated very well, that is, slightly isolated from mainstream society. However, in light of recent migration issues in Europe, to Polish society, Vietnamese are seen as a good example of immigrants who work hard and push their children's education. Therefore, the view of the Polish people about the Vietnamese community here is generally very good."
"’Twas a night to make the bravest Shrink from the tempest’s breath, For the winter snows were bitter, And the winds were cruel as death.All day on the roofs of Warsaw Had the white storm sifted down Till it almost hid the humble huts Of the poor outside the town."
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone – Greece with its immortal glories – is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place."
"When the Jews finally staged the uprising in April 1943, the Polish underground refused them almost every form of assistance. Even though they were facing the same enemy, even though their country was occupied, the Poles could not overcome their anti-Semitism and join the Jews in the struggle for the freedom of both groups, and instead chose to stage a separate Polish uprising more than a year later."
"So there is no single European people. There is no single all-embracing community of culture and tradition among, say, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Berlin and Belgrade. In fact, there are at least four communities: the Northern Protestant, the Latin Catholic, the Greek Orthodox, and the Muslim Ottoman. There is no single language - there are more than twenty. (...) There are no real European political parties (...). And most significantly of all: unlike the United States, Europe still does not have a common story."
"To my mind, imperialism is something very simple and clear and it exists as a fact when one country, a large country, seizes a certain strip of territory and subjects to its laws a certain number of men and women against their will. Soviet policy after the beginning of the second world war was precisely this. There is no difficulty in pointing this out, but the difficulty lies in the fact that when one quotes from memory one will forget one or other argument. Because the Russians, thanks to the second world war, have quite simply annexed the three Baltic States, taken a piece of Finland, a piece of Rumania, a piece of Poland, a piece of Germany and, thanks to a well thought-out policy composed of internal subversion and external pressure, have established Governments justifiably styled as Satellites, in Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest, Tirana and East Berlin - I except Belgrade where the regime is unique thanks to the energy and courage of Marshal Tito. If all this does not constitute manifestations of imperialism, if all this is not the result of a policy consciously willed and consciously pursued, an imperialist aim, then indeed we shall have to start to go back to a new discussion and a new definition of words."
"Mr. Chairman, you have invited me to speak on the subject of Britain and Europe. Perhaps I should congratulate you on your courage. If you believe some of the things said and written about my views on Europe, it must seem rather like inviting Genghis Khan to speak on the virtues of peaceful coexistence! ...The European Community is one manifestation of that European identity, but it is not the only one. We must never forget that east of the Iron Curtain, peoples who once enjoyed a full share of European culture, freedom and identity have been cut off from their roots. We shall always look on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest as great European cities...To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardise the objectives we seek to achieve. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality...it is ironic that just when those countries such as the Soviet Union, which have tried to run everything from the centre, are learning that success depends on dispersing power and decisions away from the centre, there are some in the Community who seem to want to move in the opposite direction. We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels."
"But the will to not let history repeat itself, to do something radically new, was so strong that new words had to be found. For people Europe was a promise, Europe equalled hope. When Konrad Adenauer came to Paris to conclude the Coal and Steel Treaty, in 1951, one evening he found a gift waiting at his hotel. It was a war medal, une Croix de Guerre, that had belonged to a French soldier. His daughter, a young student, had left it with a little note for the Chancellor, as a gesture of reconciliation and hope. I can see many other stirring images before me. Leaders of six States assembled to open a new future, in Rome, città eterna … Willy Brandt kneeling down in Warsaw. The dockers of Gdansk, at the gates of their shipyard. Mitterrand and Kohl hand in hand. Two million people linking Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius in a human chain, in 1989. These moments healed Europe."
"L’ordre règne à Varsovie."
"Warschau wird glattrasiert."
"A thousand soldiers knelt in Warsaw’s square, The solemn oath of battle sternly taking; They swore, without a shot, the foe to dare, With bayonets’ point their deadly pathway making. Beat drums! march on, and let our country tell That “Poland’s Fourth” will keep its promise well."
"In both countries, Taiwan and Poland, the newly established democratic systems resulted in the development of associations and other civic initiatives, but also in the emergence of new religious and spiritual groups. In both countries religious liberty was officially proclaimed in late 1980s. Yet, in Poland, the initial thaw and ease of registering new religious communities significantly slowed down over the years, and currently—for various reasons—registering a new group is more challenging than three decades ago. Previously, the political climate made similar activities difficult, various groups operated unregistered, and everything was monitored by the secret security services."
"It is therefore impossible without Christ to understand the history of the Polish nation—this great thousand-year-old community—that is so profoundly decisive for me and each one of us. If we reject this key to understanding our nation, we lay ourselves open to a substantial misunderstanding. We no longer understand ourselves. It is impossible without Christ to understand this nation with its past so full of splendour and also of terrible difficulties."
"Yet organized religion was full of paradoxes. Many of these were personified in Karol Wojtyla, who on 16 October 1978 became the 263rd Roman pontiff, with the title of Pope John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian to be elected pope since 1522, the youngest since 1846, the first from the Slavic East. Wojtyla had been Cardinal-Archbishop of Cracow. The choice was now highly appropriate for Poland had become the heartland of Catholicism. First Hitler, then Stalin and his successors had done everything in their power to destroy the Polish Church. Hitler had closed its schools, universities and seminaries, and murdered a third of its clergy. When the Red Army imposed the Lublin government in 1945, they were confident that the Church would disappear within a generation. Yet pre-war Poland, where the Church enjoyed special status, proved a less favourable environment for Catholicism than the postwar People’s Republic, where it was actively persecuted. The new frontiers turned Poland into one of the most homogeneous states on earth: more than 95 per cent of the population were now ethnic Poles, virtually all of them baptized Catholics. Catholicism became the focus of resistance to the alien Communist regime. By the 1960s, the Catholic priesthood was back to its pre-war strength of 18,000. The number of religious – i.e. priests, nuns and monks – 22,000 in 1939, had grown to 36,500. There were 50 per cent more monastic foundations, priories and convents than before the war. Some 92–95 per cent of children received Holy Communion after instruction at 18,000 catechetical centres. Over 90 per cent of Poles were buried according to Catholic rites. The movement of peasants into the towns re-evangelized the urban population. Up to three-quarters of town-dwellers were married in church. Sunday Mass attendance was over 50 per cent even in the cities. These figures could not be matched anywhere in the world. Moreover, Catholicism was the driving force behind the new Polish independent trade union, baptized Solidarity, which began to function in the Gdansk shipyard in June 1980, achieved reluctant legal recognition from the regime two months later, and, under its fervent Catholic leader, Lech Walesa, gradually undermined the regime during the decade."
"Imagine a Kingdom of God where peace reigns, criminals are punished only by love, and everyone speaks Polish—not Hebrew, not Latin, but Polish. This is no utopia conjured by a novelist, but the real-world vision of the Mariavites, a Catholic splinter group that has persisted for over a century in Poland and abroad, and keeps some 20,000 devotees today. Damian Cyrocki’s new book, “The Mariavites: Heresy, The Apocalypse, and Poland’s Female Savior” (Sheffield: Equinox, 2025), is the first full-length academic study in English of this extraordinary movement. Until now, significant scholarship has existed only in Polish."
"Imagine a Kingdom of God where peace reigns, criminals are punished only by love, and everyone speaks Polish—not Hebrew, not Latin, but Polish. This is no utopia conjured by a novelist, but the real-world vision of the Mariavites, a Catholic splinter group that has persisted for over a century in Poland and abroad, and keeps some 20,000 devotees today."
"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają."