The Best Vaclav Havel quotes

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

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

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

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

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. — Václav 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

Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness a more humane society will not emerge. — Vaclav Havel

All human suffering concerns each human being. — Vaclav Havel

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

It was never the people who complained of the universality of human rights, nor did the people consider human rights as a Western or Northern imposition. It was often their leaders who did so. — Vaclav Havel

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. — Vaclav Havel

There’s a dilemma over how to balance concrete economic interests with critical opinions on the state of human rights. It’s the human rights that suffer, and that’s a great price to pay. — Vaclav Havel

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. — Václav Havel

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

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

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight. — 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

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

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. — Vaclav Havel

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

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

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. — 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

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

I personally think President [Hosni] Mubarak, who’s done a lot for Egypt, should acknowledge that his time has come and step down right away. — Vaclav Havel

Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance. — Vaclav Havel

Time and time again I have been persuaded that a huge potential of goodwill is slumbering within our society. It’s just that it’s incoherent, suppressed, confused, crippled and perplexed. — Vaclav Havel

I am in favor of [actions] that have authenticity, roots, originality, verve, balance, taste, communicativeness, challenge, relevance to their time–in short, things that make sense. — 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

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

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

Responsibility is something higher than my family, my country, my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where, and only where, they will be properly judged. — Vaclav Havel

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

This is the moment when something once more begins visibly to happen, something truly new and unique… something truly historical, in the sense that history again demands to be heard. — Vaclav Havel

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

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

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It 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