Extraordinary people are born from the Hungarian nation, extraordinary values are born from Hungarian culture - Speech by Dr. Tamás Sulyok at the Honours Ceremony in the Parliament

"The day of the resurrection of the dead has come. Dead were the national glory buried for centuries and the sense of freedom held in prison. Now seek them not in their graves; they have risen from the dead. The Hungarian nation is once again glorious and free! Hungarian voice, Hungarian national colours, Hungarian feeling on every lip, on every banner, in every bosom."

Mr. Prime Minister, 
Mr. Speaker, 
Distinguished Laureates, 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The above quotes are from a report by Mór Jókai, who was born 200 years ago. It was one of the first writings to announce to the country and the world that the fate of the nation had been reversed, that a great thing had happened, something that Hungarians had been waiting for for decades - or even centuries.

A group of young people, ready to take action, who loved their country, in one day created a community that broke down all barriers, even opening the gates of prisons. This is how national glory was revived, how a sense of freedom was restored in Hungarian hearts – and more was achieved. On that day 177 years ago, freedom was not just a feeling, but a reality lived with dignity, as a community that had suddenly become free declared its rights.

The young Mór Jókai's elevated writing was not just an exhortation, but a demand for rights. 
Our glorious heroes did not build the pathway to freedom from vague ideas, but paved it with concrete legal claims- rights that should be equally enjoyed by all.

The Youth of March, standing shoulder to shoulder with Jókai, who held a lawyer’s degree, when they repeatedly proclaimed the 12 points of the Hungarian people's demands for rights, knew well that their realisation and implementation would not only make Hungarian life more dignified, but also make the nation more complete. 

The walls separating the people from within would come down, and all Hungarians would be free as one, and all Hungarians would enrich the free homeland as one. They began at the foundations, because they recognised - as Petőfi wrote - that "there is a homeland only where there is law."

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Mór Jókai, who was both a great figure of Hungarian freedom and Hungarian culture, did not write about the events as a witness. He was an active participant in this turning point of fate. 
Thus he became a great shaper not only of our national culture but also of our national history.

We Hungarians have become accustomed to the fact that the heroes of Hungarian culture (and often the great representatives of Hungarian science) also become the heroes of Hungarian freedom. As is well-known, in Hungary, national sovereignty and national culture presuppose each other.

We fought our way to freedom, if we could not do otherwise, through the means of culture and knowledge. 
It was never an overnight process, but we moved forward step by step, through the everyday struggles we fought. Even the glorious year of 1848 had to be preceded by a prosperous era of the Hungarian cause, the Reform Era, which brought not just political struggles, but about years of value creation and cultural enrichment, years of continuous extension and implementation of law.

Therefore, for a Hungarian, patriotism is not a passing whim – it lasts a lifetime.

This is a nation that knows, because it has experienced it for a thousand years, that the small tasks of everyday life must be done again and again, so that, in the end, the time of great deeds may come—the time of great works, great ideas, great creations, and great discoveries. This daily struggle lived with loyalty and honour is what moves the nation forward, despite every obstacle or hindrance.
There are times when we must courageously turn the nation’s fate. There are also times when sacrifices must be made to regain our freedom. 
And there are times when we must take action, work, engage in research, create incessantly, to enrich our country. Mór Jókai had all these things – and lived them, and lived them well. That is how the country became free and the nation became richer. The basis of all his achievements was his patriotism.

The patriotic and free Hungarian heart is capable of extraordinary things, because it gives its all to the place from which it has drawn its all. Because even if we leave our homeland, it is here that we are at home. Even if we pile up the bricks elsewhere, we are still building this country. 
We give everything back here, because we have received everything from this language and culture. If we become rich, this country will be richer, if we become great, this country will be greater, if we become strong, this country will be stronger, if we stand our ground with honour, this country will be nobler, if we defend our freedom well, this country will remain free.

Extraordinary people are born from the Hungarian nation; extraordinary values are born from Hungarian culture. But every age, every generation has a task as well.

We must understand and enrich our common culture, preserve the freedom of the nation and strengthen the country. Not only with blood, not only with sacrifice, but with work, with productive life, with creative efforts. This is both a duty and a responsibility.

Kunó Klebelsberg, who was born 150 years ago, warned that "a people only acquires the right to the land that is its homeland if it attaches it to itself (...) by immortal works. In addition to the blood shed on the soil of the homeland, it is works and creations through which a nation irrevocably bonds itself to the soil of the homeland."

Ladies and Gentlemen!

The winners of today's awards have made a valuable contribution to building our national culture and strengthening Hungarian identity. You are irreplaceable shapers of today's Hungarian culture, of today's Hungarian academic life. You are not only carriers, but also shapers. What you have created and are creating will become a common treasure for present and future generations of Hungarians. Through years and decades of hard work, dedication and success, you have added to the Hungarian treasure trove of values that has been built up over the centuries. 
You enrich Hungarian scientific life, the national culture and make the Hungarian people more proud. And this value-creating patriotism is a force charting out our future.

If the representatives of Hungarian culture and Hungarian scholars had not contributed to our culture’s growth, we might not even exist today. But we certainly wouldn’t be the people we are. This is how individual achievement is connected to the life of the community, and personal knowledge and creation to the nation’s continued life.
That is why today, the community to which you are inseparably linked, expresses its deep appreciation of you through the Kossuth and Széchenyi Prizes.

My heartfelt congratulations on your recognition! Thank you for enriching our common country and culture!
Long live Hungarian freedom! Long live the homeland!

Thank you for your kind attention.

Budapest, 14 March 2025