Wisdom-Light Publications is dedicated to books of political wisdom from around the world. The aim is to contribute to peaceful and sustainable development, based on the principles of the United Nations and the Earth Charter.
New Release May 7, 2019:
Mikhail Gorbatchev – Essential Thoughts
Edited by Michael S. Karlen
(click to enlarge)
Press Release (pdf)
Table of Contents (pdf)
Introduction – Two Minutes to Midnight (pdf)
Selected quotes by Mikhail Gorbachev from the book “Essential Thoughts”
Perestroika was not a choice for me: it was a direct extension of my personality, my philosophy, and my moral feelings.
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My most urgent message is that it is time for every person and every nation to rethink their role in global development. Everyone needs to be involved. Everyone has a role to play. And it is the personal involvement of each and every individual that will allow a new civilization to flourish on Earth.
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Today it is my dream that every aware citizen should be ‘a president of the Earth’ and take responsibility for its fate upon himself or herself.
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It is my firm belief that the infinite and uncontrollable fury of nuclear weapons should never be held in the hands of any mere mortal ever again, for any reason.
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The only way towards genuine peace is to eliminate these weapons altogether. To embark on this path means to pass a historic maturity test.
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A historic milestone in the chronicle of man’s eternal quest for a world without wars.
(after the signing of the INF Treaty, 1987)
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I believe that the environmental challenge is the number one problem on the [international] agenda. If we don’t succeed, then no theory, no system will matter, all the current disagreements will seem like peanuts compared to the destructive impact of the conflict between man and his environment.
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We need a new global consciousness, an environmentalization of consciousness.
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Today I propose a new motto: “We are one Mankind, we are one Planet!” We must live in peace!
This goal is real and achievable.
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We are all passengers aboard one ship, the Earth, and we must not allow it to be wrecked. There will be no second Noah’s Ark.
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For me, the important thing is the central idea of shifting from a sense of belonging to a nation to a sense of belonging to the human race.
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We have suddenly become like careless children whose vigor and activity far exceed the development of their morality and consciousness.
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I want to stand up for the very notion of trust in international relations. This is not something ephemeral, not just “good intentions.” This is what happens when parties respect each other and take into account each other’s interests.
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It is not democracy that is to blame for our troubles, but the fact that we have too little of it.
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Why not devise guidelines for a system of humanitarian education based on the moral experience of all humankind and the moral wisdom of all religions. Ultimately, we might write a textbook on world history relating not wars but moral deeds.