Top Vaclav Havel Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Vaclav Havel Biography

Václav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːtslav ˈɦavɛl] ( listen); 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, writer and former dissident, who served as the first President of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He had also served as the last President of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs.

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Vaclav Havel Quotes

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

Causes, Enter, Give, Giving Up, Lost, Struggle

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

Absence, Experience, Hero, Meaning, Meaning Of Life, Words

When a person tries to act in accordance with his conscience, when he tries to speak the truth, when he tries to behave like a citizen, even in conditions where citizenship is degraded, it won't necessarily lead anywhere, but it might. There's one thing, however, that will never lead anywhere, and that is speculating that such behavior will lead somewhere.

Citizen, Citizens, Citizenship, Conditions, Might, Trying

Barack Obama is president of a superpower and I'm a citizen of a small state.

Citizens, Obama, President, Small, State, States

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. Hope is the feeling that life and work have a meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you. Life without hope is an empty, boring, and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big as life itself.

Carry, Everything, Heart, Hope, Thankful, Useless Life

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

Arbiter, Modern, Sole, Thrones, Vacant

I have found that good taste, oddly enough, plays an important role in politics. Why is it like that? The most probable reason is that good taste is a visible manifestation of human sensibility toward the world, environment, people.

Important, People, Play, Politics, Role, Toward

Either we have hope within us or we don't It is a dimension of the soul, and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the World or observation of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.

Dimension, Grieving, Heart, Prognostication, Soul

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

Acting, Individuals, Inspirational, Nothing, Powerful

As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.

Considering, Highest, Humility, Men, Source, World

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

Become, Dream, Impossible, Reality, Vision

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.

Experiences, Genuinely, Human Experience, Humanity, Transcendence

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

Consistently, Funny, Inspirational, Laugh, Looking, Running

There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. . . . Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.

Art, Holds, Ideas, Political, Power

The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.

Heart, Lies, Lying, Salvation, World

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

Awareness, Circumstances, Say, Thinking, Truth Is

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.

Deception, Everything, Self, Start, Understanding

None of us know all the potentialities that slumber in the spirit of the population, or all the ways in which that population can surprise us when there is the right interplay of events.

Events, Faith, Hero, Interplay, Population, Right

Without the constantly living and articulated eperience of absurdity, there would be no reason to attempt to do something meaningful. And on the contrary, how can one experience one's own absurdity if one is not constantly seeking meaning?

Articulated, Attempt, Meaningful, Reason, Would Be

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

Binds, Chains, Chains That Bind, Country, Links

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