Vaclav Havel Quotes - Page 2

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• Communism was overthrown by life, by thought, by dignity.

  Vaclav Havel

  Dignity, Communism

  6 Copy quote

• We live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.

  Vaclav Havel

  World, Certain, Postmodern

  Vaclav Havel's Liberty Medal acceptance speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.aps.org. October 4, 1994.

  40 Copy quote

• Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary master plan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people's own failure as individuals.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, People, Support

  Vaclav Havel, John Keane (2016). “The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe”, p.43, Routledge

  17 Copy quote

• The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.

  Vaclav Havel

  Thinking, Truth Is, Said

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala". Book by Václav Havel, translated by Paul Wilson. Chapter 2: "Writing for the Stage", p. 67, 1990.

  4 Copy quote

• We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.

  Vaclav Havel

  Integrity, Different, Used

  1990 Speech, 1 Jan.

  7 Copy quote

• By perceiving ourselves as part of the river, we take responsibility for the river as a whole.

  Vaclav Havel

  Responsibility, Rivers, Taking Responsibility

  4 Copy quote

• People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.

  Vaclav Havel

  Party, People, Political

  Vaclav Havel, John Keane (2016). “The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe”, p.59, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

• True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say?

  Vaclav Havel

  Country, Calm, Oppression

  Open letter to Dr. Gustáv Husák, Communist President, April 08, 1975.

  7 Copy quote

• Education is the ability to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena.

  Vaclav Havel

  Motivational, Connections, Ability

  31 Copy quote

• Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.

  Vaclav Havel

  Inspirational, Funny, Running

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala". Book by Václav Havel, translated by Paul Wilson. Chapter 2: "Writing for the Stage", 1990.

  10 Copy quote

• Man is a part of the world, and his spirit is part of the spirit of the world. We are merely a peculiar mode of Being, a living atom within it, or, rather, a cell that, if sufficiently open to itself and its own mystery, can also experience the mystery, the will, the pain, and the hope of the world.

  Vaclav Havel

  Pain, Men, Cells

  24 Copy quote

• The Declaration of Independence states that the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.

  Vaclav Havel

  Men, Independence, Liberty

  Vaclav Havel's Liberty Medal acceptance speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.aps.org. October 4, 1994.

  13 Copy quote

• Our social and economic statistics are telling us what we already know in our hearts: we have created a world that works for only a few. To change this, we must learn to act toward each other and our environment in profoundly different ways.

  Vaclav Havel

  Heart, Different, World

  74 Copy quote

• Lying can never save us from another lie.

  Vaclav Havel

  Trust, Truth, Honesty

  44 Copy quote

• There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.

  Vaclav Havel

  Stars, Hero, Political

  Vaclav Havel, John Keane (2016). “The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe”, p.78, Routledge

  45 Copy quote

• The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, Heart, World

  30 Copy quote

• You may ask what kind of a republic I dream of. Let me reply: I dream of a republic independent, free, and democratic, of a republic economically prosperous and yet socially just; in short, of a humane republic which serves the individual and which therefore holds the hope that the individual will serve it in turn. Of a republic of well-rounded people, because without such it is impossible to solve any of our problems, human, economic, ecological, social, or political.

  Vaclav Havel

  Dream, Independent, People

  8 Copy quote

• Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

  Vaclav Havel

  Hero, Men, Looks

  "Disturbing the Peace". Book by Vaclav Havel, 1986.

  77 Copy quote

• Keep the company of those who seek the truth- run from those who have found it

  Vaclav Havel

  Running, Truth, Found

  18 Copy quote

• As in everything else, I must start with myself. That is: in all circumstances try to be decent, just, tolerant, and understanding, and at the same time try to resist corruption and deception. In other words, I must do my utmost to act in harmony with my conscience and my better self.

  Vaclav Havel

  Self, Understanding, Deception

  14 Copy quote

• I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart.

  Vaclav Havel

  Hope, Heart, Pessimist

  14 Copy quote

• Human rights, human freedoms... and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world... while the state is a human creation, human beings are the creation of God.

  Vaclav Havel

  Powerful, Patriotic, Rights

  "Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism" by Slavoj Zizek in London Review of Books, Volume 21, No. 21 (pp. 3-6), www.lrb.co.uk. October 28, 1999.

  23 Copy quote

• Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.

  Vaclav Havel

  Government, Law, Moral

  57 Copy quote

• I do think Russian foreign policy is very savvy. There's a need for great caution because the Russians are able to discreetly blackmail countries.

  Vaclav Havel

  Country, Thinking, Able

  Source: www.rferl.org

  12 Copy quote

• A person who has been seduced by the consumer value system, whose identity is dissolved in an amalgam of the accouterments trappings of mass civilization, and who has no roots in the order of being, no sense of responsibility for anything higher than his own personal survival, is a demoralized person. The system depends on this demoralization, deepens it, is in fact a projection of it into society.

  Vaclav Havel

  Responsibility, Civilization, Roots

  15 Copy quote

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