Quotes from Liu Xiaobo

For those of us in the opposition movement under dictatorships, part of our job is confronting police and spending time in prison. So, a dissident not only needs to learn how to oppose oppression but also how to face the crackdowns and time in prison.

In China the underworld and officialdom have interpenetrated and become one. Criminal elements have become officialized as officials have become criminalized.

If you want to enter hell, don't complain of the dark; you can't blame the world for being unfair if you start on the path of the rebel.

China, as a major nation of the world, as one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and as a member of the U.N. Council on Human Rights, should be contributing to peace for humankind and progress toward human rights.

From B.A. to M.A. and on to Ph.D., my academic career was all smooth sailing. Upon receiving my degrees, I stayed on to teach at Beijing Normal University.

Appreciation has become my destiny in life. Perhaps it's the instinct of a polar bear enjoying hibernation in the vast snows.

I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes.

Hatred is corrosive of a person's wisdom and conscience the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and block a nation's progress to freedom and democracy.

My tendency to idealize Western civilization arises from my nationalistic desire to use the West in order to reform China. But this has led me to overlook the flaws of Western culture.