Free nations generally look for ways to deal with dictators amicably.

Those who warned that Gorbachev was being put under too much pressure were wrong.

My optimism is not based primarily on the successful march of democracy in recent times but rather is based on the experience of having lived in a fear society and studied the mechanics of tyranny that sustain such a society.

If you have to fight an enemy at a critical point in time, and you have an ally who happens to be a dictator, you don't say: Let's stop fighting right now, because you're not a democrat. That would be ridiculous.

As soon as people become a little less fearful, they will also begin demanding more freedom.

Free nations generally look for ways to deal with dictators amicably.

They tried their best to find a place where I was isolated. But all the resources of a superpower cannot isolate the man who hears a voice of freedom, a voice I heard from the very chamber of my soul.