Vaclav Quotes

Our concern is whether we can live with dignity in such a system, whether it serves people rather than people serving it. — Vaclav Havel

Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you. — Vaclav Havel

People thought they could explain and conquer nature-yet the outcome is that they destroyed it and disinherited themselves from it. — Vaclav Havel

If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President. — Vaclav Havel

I do not consider the Lisbon Treaty to be a good thing for Europe, for the freedom of Europe, or for the Czech Republic. — Vaclav Klaus

Ownership is not a vice, not something to be ashamed of, but rather a commitment, and an instrument by which the general good can be served. — Vaclav Havel

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. — Vaclav Havel

Education is the ability to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena. — Vaclav Havel

The best environment for man is the environment of liberty — Vaclav Klaus

Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice. — Vaclav Klaus

Environmentalism is a dangerous ideology endangering human freedom. — Vaclav Klaus

EU didn't advance our [Eastern Europe] democracy by a single millimeter. — Vaclav Klaus

Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism. — Vaclav Klaus

It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. - Vaclav Havel — J.J. McAvoy

Lying can never save us from another lie. — Vaclav Havel

The tragic element in modern man, not ignore the meaning of his life, but it bothers him less and less. — Vaclav Havel

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

Truth is not merely what we are thinking, but also why, to whom and under what circumstances we say it. — Vaclav Havel

Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred. — Vaclav Havel

Keep the company of those who seek the truth- run from those who have found it — Vaclav Havel

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

I live in Europe and care about democracy and sovereignty of nation states there. — Vaclav Klaus

Communism was overthrown by life, by thought, by dignity. — Vaclav Havel

"not a scientific body capable of accurately assessing the facts about global warming". — Vaclav Klaus

It lies in human nature that where you experience your first laughs, you also remember the age kindly. — Vaclav Havel

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. — Vaclav Havel

To serve grand ideas with a major work is not bad, nor is it all there's to art. — Vaclav Havel

I would count myself as a friend of Vaclav Havel. — Tom Stoppard

If the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man. — Vaclav Havel

I think he [Vaclav Havel] felt that he could speak more truth, in a way, through writing plays. — Judy Woodruff

English is the 'language of liberty' for nations emerging from years of cultural oppression. — Vaclav Havel

If a single writer in a country is in chains, then there are some links of that chain that binds us all. — Vaclav Havel

Those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses. — Vaclav Havel

I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker. — Vaclav Klaus

I was paid to read Western economic texts. In a way, the regime paid for their own undermining. — Vaclav Klaus

The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle. — Vaclav Havel

The hope of the world lies in the rehabilitation of the living human being, not just the body but also the soul. — Vaclav Havel

Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it. — Vaclav Havel

In my opinion, theater shouldn't give advice to citizens. — Vaclav Havel

You cannot have democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation state. — Vaclav Klaus

Vaclav Havel is the figure that represents the Velvet Revolution and the reunification of Europe. He will be sorely missed. — Jerzy Buzek

Courage means going against majority opinion in the name of the truth. — Vaclav Havel

You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it. — Vaclav Havel

Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost. — Vaclav Havel

There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil. — Bill Gates

There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side. — Vaclav Havel

What is concisely referred to as global warming, is a fatal mistake of the present time. — Vaclav Klaus

The system was afraid of Vaclav Havel. And so they either harassed him for put him in jail. — Judy Woodruff

Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising. — Vaclav Havel

I have said it so often: if the West does not stabilize the East, the East will destabilize the West. — Vaclav Havel

Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life. — Vaclav Havel

I think it's important for one to take a certain distance from oneself. — Vaclav Havel

There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause. — Vaclav Havel

What we want is to establish the rules of a market economy - not to plan its outcome. — Vaclav Klaus

We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality. — Vaclav Havel

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

The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing, and often, paradoxically, it is literature that suffers for it. — Vaclav Havel

A genuinely fundamental and hopeful improvement in "systems" cannot happen without a significant shift in human consciousness. — Vaclav Havel

All human suffering concerns each human being — Vaclav Havel

I don't think there is any global warming. I don't see the statistical data for that. — Vaclav Klaus

I have read somewhere that in a totalitarian system martyrdom does better than thought. — Vaclav Havel

Modern science kills God and takes his place on the vacant throne. Science is the sole legitimate arbiter of all relavent truth. — Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel had this great sense of humor. And you kind of felt that he was making a little bit fun of everything at the same time. — Judy Woodruff

He [Vaclav Havel] did love music. And so much about the Czech revolution was about music. — Judy Woodruff

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

I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect. — Vaclav Havel

The events in the square, of course, made a deep impression on me and many other parents. — Vaclav Klaus

Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. — Vaclav Havel

What's certain is that a totalitarian enclave like Cuba's can't continue to exist, so change will definitely come there, eventually. — Vaclav Havel

By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market. — Vaclav Klaus

The salvation of the world lies in the human heart. — Vaclav Havel

Theater is there to search for questions. It doesn't give you instructions. — Vaclav Havel

It's not hard to stand behind one's successes. But to accept responsibility for one's failures ... that is devishly hard! — Vaclav Havel

The farther we go, the more the ultimate explanation recedes from us, and all we have left is faith. — Vaclav Hlavaty

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

Evil must be confronted in its womb and, if it can't be done otherwise, then it has to be dealt with by the use of force. — Vaclav Havel

When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete. — Vaclav Havel

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less. — Vaclav Havel

There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. — Vaclav Havel

I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. — Vaclav Havel

Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience. — Vaclav Havel

The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him. — Vaclav Havel

Hope is the deep orientation of the human soul that can be held at the darkest times. — Vaclav Havel

Hope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. Hope is just a feeling that life and work have a meaning. — Vaclav Havel

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

People, your Government has returned to you! — Vaclav Havel

But if I were to say who influenced me most, then I'd say Franz Kafka. And his works were always anchored in the Central European region. — Vaclav Havel

You get up and, first thing in the morning, you do your 500 words. Do it every day and you've got a book in eight or nine months. — Vaclav Smil

Truth lies not only in what is said, but also in who says it, to whom, why, how and under what circumstances. — Vaclav Havel

The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought. — Vaclav Havel