Quotes by Polish authors

See the complete list of authors from Poland

"The decision to use the atom bomb on Japanese cities, and the consequent buildup of enormous nuclear arsenals, was made by governments, on the basis of political and military perceptions"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"From my earliest days I had a passion for science"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"But scientists on both sides of the iron curtain played a very significant role in maintaining the momentum of the nuclear arms race throughout the four decades of the Cold War"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"The most terrifying moment in my life was October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I did not know all the facts - we have learned only recently how close we were to war - but I knew enough to make me tremble"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"I appeal to my fellow scientists to remember their responsibility to humanity"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"The present basic philosophy is nuclear deterrence"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"Long before the terrifying potential of the arms race was recognized, there was a widespread instinctive abhorrence of nuclear weapons, and a strong desire to get rid of them"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"I saw science as being in harmony with humanity"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"I have to bring to your notice a terrifying reality: with the development of nuclear weapons Man has acquired, for the first time in history, the technical means to destroy the whole of civilization in a single act"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"As for the assertion that nuclear weapons prevent wars, how many more wars are needed to refute this arguments? Tens of millions have died in the many wars that have taken place since 1945"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"All nuclear weapon states should now recognize that this is so, and declare - in Treaty form - that they will never be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would open the way to the gradual, mutual reduction of nuclear arsenals, down to zero"

Joseph Rotblat, Physicist

"There is no filmmaking legislation because distributors are not interested in sharing their money with the film industry - for instance, by giving a percentage of ticket sales back to filmmakers"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"In the forty years of the people's republic, some of the worst historical traits were preserved in our people. These included even the common characteristics developed in the economic reality of the time of partitions in the 17th and 18th centuries"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"In Europe, there is no television filmmaking legislation that could assist film production because private broadcasters are not interested in supporting Polish film"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Eventually, the state's funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"As I said earlier, there are no writers who could create a literary vision of the new reality"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"One might have thought that the most significant change in the film industry that would come about with a transition from the communist economy to capitalism would fundamentally concern the sources of funding"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"On the one hand, young theatre directors were coming to television theatre, because they wanted to get closer to the cinema, despite having studied and worked for the theatre"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Nevertheless, in the theatre, and in the cinema, the contemporary reality of Poland has been represented only to a minuscule degree in the last 12 years"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Films made in the spirit of the past continued to be made"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Cinemas gained new young audiences who wanted films made for them"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"At the same time, television theatre became more visibly active"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"A novelty in Polish filmmaking was that it was possible to find funds for a big production. However, at the same time, the state budget committed less and less money to filmmaking"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Television theatre, as is implied in its name, should rely on adaptations of scripts written for the theatre"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"With it adult political audiences abandoned cinemas. In their place appeared a void. That previous political audience migrated to the seats in front of their TV"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Why does there exist a global American entertainment industry, but there isn't an equivalent coming from France or Italy? This is the case simply because the English language opens the whole world to the American cinema"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"It turned out that the country was helpless in the face of a new reality"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"In the first years after the systemic transition, our screens showed American entertainment that had not been available before, or had been available only sporadically"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Suddenly, the screens were dominated by American entertainment to the extent of something like 95 percent. As a result, audiences turned away from the kinds of films that we used to make"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"In the first years after 1989, films were partly financed from the state's budget as well as by public television. Still, except for a few special cases, most films are made this way"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"However, that old mode of Polish filmmaking virtually disappeared"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

"Even better, there were established two separate committees deciding on state film funding"

Andrzej Wajda, Director

Marie Curie

"In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"I have no dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas"

Marie Curie, Scientist

Marie Curie

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child"

Marie Curie, Scientist

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