216 Quotes by Vaclav Havel

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

Lying can never save us from another lie.

The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance.

You do not become a ‘dissident’ just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances….It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

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.

*Matka o synu : * Petr a studovat mikrobiologii? Nesmysl! Příslušník středníchvrstev se nemůže zabývat takovými titěrnostmi!

Přirozenou nevýhodou demokracie je, že těm, kdo to s ní myslí poctivě, nesmírně svazuje ruce, zatím co těm, kteří ji neberou vážně, umožňuje téměř vše.

Naděje prostě není optimismus. Není to přesvědčení, že něco dobře dopadne, ale jistota, že má něco smysl – bez ohledu na to, jak to dopadne.

Man is in fact nailed down - like Christ on the Cross - to a grid of paradoxes . . . he balances between the torment of not knowing his mission and the joy of carrying it out, between nothingness and meaningfulness. And like Christ, he is in fact victorious by virtue of his defeats.