“The nation has come to the end of its psychological endurance. Many people are beginning to despair. Now it is not days but hours that separate us from a national catastrophe. Honesty compels one to ask the question: Did things have to come to this?”

—  Wojciech Jaruzelski

Source: Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 1, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The nation has come to the end of its psychological endurance. Many people are beginning to despair. Now it is not days…" by Wojciech Jaruzelski?
Wojciech Jaruzelski photo
Wojciech Jaruzelski 13
Polish military officer and politician 1923–2014

Related quotes

Davy Crockett photo

“The time will and must come, when honesty will receive its reward, and when the people of this nation will be brought to a sense of their duty, and will pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.”

Davy Crockett (1786–1836) American politician

As quoted in David Crockett : His Life and Adventures (1875) by John Stevens Cabot Abbott, p. 294
Context: I know nothing, by experience, of party discipline. I would rather be a raccoon-dog, and belong to a Negro in the forest, than to belong to any party, further than to do justice to all, and to promote the interests of my country. The time will and must come, when honesty will receive its reward, and when the people of this nation will be brought to a sense of their duty, and will pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.

Catherine Rowett photo

“Besides the ‘how many?’ question, Empedocles seems to be answering two other ancient questions: ‘How did the world come to be as it now is?’ and ‘How did it come to have the creatures that it now has?’. [...] His answers are subtle and intricate.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 1 : Lost words, forgotten worlds

Winston S. Churchill photo

“A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward … Let us have no fear of the future.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Source: Speech in the House of Commons, November 29, 1944 "Debate on the Address" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1944/nov/29/debate-on-the-address#column_31.

Milan Kundera photo

“I invent stories, confront one with another, and by this means I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature
Joseph Chamberlain photo

“The day of small nations has passed away; the day of Empires has come.”

Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) British businessman, politician, and statesman

Speech at Birmingham, May 13, 1904.
1900s

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Fellow citizens of New Haven, if the Republican Party of this nation shall ever have the national house entrusted to its keeping, it will be the duty of that party to attend to all the affairs of national housekeeping. Whatever matters of importance may come up, whatever difficulties may arise in the way of its administration of the government, that party will then have to attend to. It will then be compelled to attend to other questions, besides this question which now assumes an overwhelming importance — the question of Slavery. It is true that in the organization of the Republican party this question of Slavery was more important than any other; indeed, so much more important has it become that no other national question can even get a hearing just at present. The old question of tariff — a matter that will remain one of the chief affairs of national housekeeping to all time — the question of the management of financial affairs; the question of the disposition of the public domain — how shall it be managed for the purpose of getting it well settled, and of making there the homes of a free and happy people — these will remain open and require attention for a great while yet, and these questions will have to be attended to by whatever party has the control of the government. Yet, just now, they cannot even obtain a hearing, and I do not purpose to detain you upon these topics, or what sort of hearing they should have when opportunity shall come.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)

George W. Bush photo

“From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2005, Second Inaugural Address (January 2005)

George W. Bush photo

“My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks by the President to the Diet, Tokyo, Japan. (February 18, 2002) http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/press/release/2002/0902-gwbjapan1.html
2000s, 2002

Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“In Washington's day the task of the people was to create and weld together a nation. In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from disruption from within. In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation and its institutions from disruption from without.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

1940s, Third inaugural address (1941)

Bernie Sanders photo

“A nation that in many ways was created—I'm sorry to have to say this, from way back—on racist principles, that's a fact, we have come a long way as a nation.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

"Bernie Sanders to Liberty University: America Founded on 'Racist Principles, That's a Fact'" by Fred Lucas, in The Blaze (14 September 2015) http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/14/bernie-sanders-to-liberty-university-america-founded-on-racist-principles-thats-a-fact/
2010s, 2015

Related topics