America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Democracy must learn to defend itself.
Mikhail Gorbachev

I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.
Mikhail Gorbachev

I believe, as Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of life.
Mikhail Gorbachev

If not me, who? And if not now, when?
Mikhail Gorbachev

If people don't like Marxism, they should blame the British Museum.
Mikhail Gorbachev

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
Mikhail Gorbachev

It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.
Mikhail Gorbachev

It seems that the most important thing about Reagan was his anti-Communism and his reputation as a hawk who saw the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire.'
Mikhail Gorbachev

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.
Mikhail Gorbachev

More socialism means more democracy, openness and collectivism in everyday life.
Mikhail Gorbachev

My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Sometimes when you stand face to face with someone, you cannot see his face.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth.
Mikhail Gorbachev

The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.
Mikhail Gorbachev

The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.
Mikhail Gorbachev

The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
Mikhail Gorbachev