Gustav Heinemann Quotes

Everywhere, authority and tradition have to justify themselves in the face of questions.

War is not the quintessential emergency in which man has to prove himself, as my generation learned at its school desks in the days of the Kaiser; rather, peace is the emergency in which we all have to prove ourselves.

Not less, but more democracy - that is the demand, that is the great goal that we have to prescribe for ourselves, and especially for our youth.

I appeal to the responsibility of the blocs and the major powers, not to seek security in the arms race, but rather in a meeting for joint disarmament and arms limitations.

In this life of ours we remain directed toward the relative utopia of a better world, and sensibly this can be the only model for our action.

Some fatherlands are difficult. Germany is one of them. But it is our fatherland. Here is where we live and work.

Disarmament requires trust.

The first thing I see is the obligation to serve peace.

Trust cannot be commanded; and yet it is also correct that the only one who earns trust is the one who is prepared to grant trust.

One of our most noble political tasks is to open up trust.

The time has come - and must come - for multilateral conversations about a secure peace in all of Europe.

The secret of big and revolutionary actions also consists in discovering the tiny step that is simultaneously a strategic step, insofar as it entails additional steps in the direction of a better reality.

Liberal democracy must finally become the vital element of our society.

Beyond peace, there is no longer any existence possible.

We have to recognize that the freedom of the individual has to be protected not only from the power of the state, but even more so from economic and societal power.

Insecurity and resignation mingle with the hope for a better order.

I have left the federal government and the German Bundestag; I have resigned from all my positions in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.