Quotes by Gustav Heinemann

• Some fatherlands are difficult. Germany is one of them. But it is our fatherland. Here is where we live and work.
• Insecurity and resignation mingle with the hope for a better order.
• We have to recognize that the freedom of the individual has to be protected not only from the power of the state, but even more so from economic and societal power.
• War is not the quintessential emergency in which man has to prove himself, as my generation learned at its school desks in the days of the Kaiser; rather, peace is the emergency in which we all have to prove ourselves.
• Trust cannot be commanded; and yet it is also correct that the only one who earns trust is the one who is prepared to grant trust.
• Therefore it does not help to sneer at the imperfection of today's reality or to preach absolutes as a daily agenda.
• The time has come - and must come - for multilateral conversations about a secure peace in all of Europe.
• The secret of big and revolutionary actions also consists in discovering the tiny step that is simultaneously a strategic step, insofar as it entails additional steps in the direction of a better reality.
• The first thing I see is the obligation to serve peace.
• Disarmament requires trust.
• Ladies and gentlemen, on the occasion of my election I received many letters from people representing all segments of the population and all professions, especially from the younger generation, linking my inauguration with great - far too great - expectations.
• One of our most noble political tasks is to open up trust.
• Beyond peace, there is no longer any existence possible.
• Everywhere, authority and tradition have to justify themselves in the face of questions.
• I appeal to the responsibility of the blocs and the major powers, not to seek security in the arms race, but rather in a meeting for joint disarmament and arms limitations.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I take office at a time in which the world is living in extreme contradictions.
• Liberal democracy must finally become the vital element of our society.
• Not less, but more democracy - that is the demand, that is the great goal that we have to prescribe for ourselves, and especially for our youth.