Home / Quotes / Quote by Vaclav Havel

Quote by Vaclav Havel

“I have read somewhere that in a totalitarian system martyrdom does better than thought.”

Quote by Vaclav Havel

Author

Vaclav Havel, born on October 5, 1936, was the former president of Czechoslovakia. He was a playwright, politician, and a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution. Known for his unwavering commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights, Havel's works and actions had a profound impact on European politics in the post-Cold War era. more

You May Also Like

“It cannot suffice to invent new machines, new regulations, new institutions. It is necessary to change and improve our understanding of the true purpose of what we are and what we do in the world. Only such a new understanding will allow us to develop new models of behavior, new scales of values and goals, and thereby invest the global regulations, treaties and institutions with a new spirit and meaning.”

World Spirit Purpose Values Understanding Goal Behavior Models Machines Institutions Scales Regulation Conservation Treaties True Purpose Values And Goals

Author:Vaclav Havel

“This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor.”

Language Wise Wise Words Periods Thousand Uncertain Provoking Confusing Unnoticed Nonsensical

Author:Vaclav Havel

“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.”

World Humans Ideas Today Values Democracy Rights Salvation West Human Rights Free Market Rapids World Today Civil Society Dissemination

Author:Vaclav Havel

“There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. Besides, to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that might slumber unobtrusively within them - isn’t this, after all, the true vocation of the intellectual?”

Might Doubt Horror Intellectual No Doubt Distrust Vocation Slumber

Author:Vaclav Havel

“The role of the writer is not simply to arrange Being according to his own lights; he must also serve as a medium to Being and remain open to its often unfathomable dictates. This is the only way the work can transcend its creator and radiate its meaning...”

Way Light Roles Creator Mediums Unfathomable

Author:Vaclav Havel

“The best way to make Communists is to put the Americans into a place where there were no Communists before.”

Way Best Way Communism Communist

Author:Norodom Sihanouk

“True, I used to see a lot of hope. I saw men tear down the veils behind which the truth had been hidden. But then the same men, when they have power in their hands at last, began to find the veils useful. They made many more. Life has not changed. Only some people have been growing, becoming different, that is all. After a youth spent fighting the white man, why should not the president discover as he grows older that his real desire has been to be like the white governor himself, to live above all the blackness in the big old slave castle?”

“How horribly rapid everything has been, from the days when men were not ashamed to talk of souls and of suffering and of hope to these low days of smiles that will never again be sly enough to hide the knowledge of betrayal and deceit.”

Men Has Beens Soul Enough Suffering Lows Corruption Betrayal Ashamed Deceit Rapids Sly

Book:The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born

Source: The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born

“The beauty was in the waking of the powerless. Is it always to be true that it is impossible to have things strong and at the same time beautiful? The famished men need not stay famished. But to gorge themselves in this heartbreaking way consuming, utterly destroying the common promise of their greed, was that ever necessary?”

Men Way Needs Beautiful Strong Common Impossible Promise Greed Being True Destroying Waking Powerless Consuming Heartbreaking Gorges

Book:The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born

Source: The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born

“When you can see the end of things even in their beginnings, there's no more hope, unless you want to pretend, or forget, or get drunk or something.”

Want Ends Hope Forget Drunk

Book:The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born

Source: The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born