Vaclav Havel Quotes - Page 4

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• Planetary democracy does not yet exist but our global civilization is already preparing a place for it. It is the very Earth we inhabit linked with Heaven above us. Only in this setting can the mutuality and the commonality of the human race be newly created with reverence and gratitude for that which transcends each of us and all of us together.

  Vaclav Havel

  Gratitude, Race, Civilization

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• The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, Hero, Heart

  International Herald Tribune, February 21, 1990.

  30 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, World, Change For The Better

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvizdala". Book by Vaclav Havel translated by Paul Wilson (Chapter 1: Growing Up "Outside", p. 11), 1990.

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• I am convinced that we will never build a democratic state based on rule of law if we do not at the same time build a state that is-regardless of how unscientific this may sound to the ears of a political scientist-humane, moral, intellectual and spiritual, and cultural.

  Vaclav Havel

  Spiritual, Hero, Law

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

  Vaclav Havel

  Nature, People, Outcomes

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

  Vaclav Havel

  Thrones, Modern, Sole

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• There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.

  Vaclav Havel

  Hero, Winning, Intelligent

  Disturbing the Peace ch. 5 (1986) (translation by Paul Wilson)

  4 Copy quote

• Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace.

  Vaclav Havel

  Respect, Peace, Freedom

  "Living in Truth". Book by Vaclav Havel, 1986.

  13 Copy quote

• When a man has his heart in the right place and good taste, he can not only do well in politics but is even predetermined for it. If someone is modest and does not yearn for power, he is certainly not ill-equipped to engage in politics; on the contrary, he belongs there. What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, Heart, Men

  International Herald Tribune, October 29, 1991.

  11 Copy quote

• The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.

  Vaclav Havel

  Law, People, Judging

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala". Book by Václav Havel, translated by Paul Wilson. Chapter 5: "The Politics of Hope", 1990.

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• If I have accomplished anything good, then it's mainly because I've been driven by the need to know whether I can accomplish things I'm not sure I have the capacity for.

  Vaclav Havel

  Accomplishment, Needs, Driven

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• Those who rebelled against totalitarian rule and those who simply managed to remain themselves and think freely, were all persecuted. We should not forget any of those who paid for our present freedom in one way or another.

  Vaclav Havel

  Thinking, Way, Forget

  New Year's Address to the Nation, Prague, January 01, 1990.

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Evil, Use, Done

  "Author of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution exits the world stage" by Ian Traynor, www.theguardian.com. January 31, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

• Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations.

  Vaclav Havel

  Respect, Independent, Self

  "Living in Truth". Book by Vaclav Havel, 1986.

  7 Copy quote

• Technological measures are important, but equally important is... a consciousness of the commonality of all living beings and an emphasis on shared responsibility.

  Vaclav Havel

  Responsibility, Important, Climate

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

  Vaclav Havel

  Suicide, Hero, Suicidal

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

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• Frank Zappa was one of the gods of the Czech underground, I thought of him as a friend. Whenever I feel like escaping from the world of the Presidency, I think of him.

  Vaclav Havel

  Thinking, Escaping, World

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• Though my heart may be left of centre, I have always known that the only economic system that works is a market economy... This is the only natural economy, the only kind that makes sense, the only one that can lead to prosperity, because it is the only one that reflects the nature of life itself.

  Vaclav Havel

  Heart, May, Kind

  "Official Report of Debates of the Legislative Assembly". Hansard, Volume 11, Number 21, www.leg.bc.ca. July 5, 1993.

  7 Copy quote

• Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what you are doing makes sense, no matter how things turn out.

  Vaclav Havel

  Feelings, Matter, Belief

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

  Vaclav Havel

  Hopeful, Fundamentals, Improvement

  "Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala". Book by Václav Havel, translated by Paul Wilson. Chapter 1: "Growing Up Outside'", p. 17, 1990.

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• The only salvation of the world today... is the rapid dissemination of the basic values of the West, that is, the ideas of democracy, human rights, the civil society, and the free market.

  Vaclav Havel

  Rights, Ideas, Democracy

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• The world is not divided into two types of being, one superior and the other merely surrounding it. Being, nature, the universe - they are all one infinitely complex and mysterious metaorganism of which we are but a part, though a unique one.

  Vaclav Havel

  Inspiring, Unique, Two

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• People have passed through a very dark tunnel at the end of which there was a light of freedom. Unexpectedly they passed through the prison gates and found themselves in a square. They are now free and they don't know where to go.

  Vaclav Havel

  Dark, Tunnels, Squares

  "Address at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London". The Independent, March 22, 1990.

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• 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

  Real, Destiny, Men

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• It seems to me that one of the most basic human experiences, one that is genuinely universal and unites-or, more precisely, could unite-all of humanity, is the experience of transcendence in the broadest sense of the word.

  Vaclav Havel

  Humanity, Transcendence, Human Experience

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