Václav Havel quotes - page 5

I frequently even took what was clearly a minority position and so reaped more opposition than recognition. Sometimes I may have been mistaken in this but I would like to assure you of one thing: I have always tried to abide by the dictates of the authority under which I took my oath of office - the dictates of the best of my awareness and conscience. (Václav Havel)
Because it is founded on the search for universal laws, it cannot deal with singularity, that is, with uniqueness. The universe is a unique event and a unique story, and so far we are the unique point of that story. But unique events and stories are the domain of poetry, not science. View quote
Václav Havel
Classical modern science described only the surface of things, a single dimension of reality. And the more dogmatically science treated it as the only dimension, as the very essence of reality, the more misleading it became. View quote
Václav Havel
Many people hardly ever see a politician as a person anymore. View quote
Václav Havel
This awareness endows us with the capacity for self-transcendence. Politicians at international forums may reiterate a thousand times that the basis of the new world order must be universal respect for human rights, but it will mean nothing as long as this imperative does not derive from the respect of the miracle of Being, the miracle of the universe, the miracle of nature, the miracle of our own existence. View quote
Václav Havel
Our country, if that is what we want, can now permanently radiate love, understanding, the power of the spirit and of ideas. View quote
Václav Havel
The history of the human race has generated several papers articulating basic moral imperatives, or fundamental principles, of human coexistence that - maybe in association with concurring historical events - substantially influenced the fate of humanity on this planet. Among these historic documents, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - adopted fifty years ago today - holds a very special, indeed, unique position. View quote
Václav Havel
I think there are good reasons for suggesting that the modern age has ended. View quote
Václav Havel
If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. View quote
Václav Havel
Of course, in politics, just as anywhere else in life, it is impossible and it would not be sensible always to say everything bluntly. Yet that does not mean one has to lie. What is needed here are tact, instinct and good taste. View quote
Václav Havel
Seemingly endless negotiations finally led to the division of Czechoslovakia. It had one great advantage: it proceeded calmly, without violence, major conflicts, or significant unsolved issues. (Václav Havel)
A year ago, we all were united in the joy over having broken free of totalitarianism. Today we all are made somewhat nervous by the burden of freedom. View quote
Václav Havel
An ordinary human being, with a personal conscience, personally answering for something to somebody and personally and directly taking responsibility, seems to be receding farther and farther from the realm of politics. View quote
Václav Havel
None of us is just its victim. We are all also its co-creators. View quote
Václav Havel
An amalgamation of cultures is taking place. I see it as proof that something is happening, something is being born, that we are in a phase when one age is succeeding another, when everything is possible. View quote
Václav Havel
It logically follows that, in today's multicultural world, the truly reliable path to coexistence, to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation, must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies, or sympathies - it must be rooted in self-transcendence: Transcendence as a hand reached out to those close to us, to foreigners, to the human community, to all living creatures, to nature, to the universe. Transcendence as a deeply and joyously experienced need to be in harmony even with what we ourselves are not, what we do not understand, what seems distant from us in time and space, but with which we are nevertheless mysteriously linked because, together with us, all this constitutes a single world. Transcendence as the only real alternative to extinction. View quote
Václav Havel
The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought. View quote
Václav Havel
Establishing respect for the law does not automatically ensure a better life for that, after all, is a job for people and not for laws and institutions. View quote
Václav Havel
We should not forget any of those who paid for our present freedom in one way or another. View quote
Václav Havel
The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. View quote
Václav Havel
There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. (Václav Havel)
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. View quote
Václav Havel
Cultural conflicts are increasing and are understandably more dangerous today than at any other time in history. View quote
Václav Havel
Life cannot be destroyed for good, neither ... can history be brought entirely to a halt. View quote
Václav Havel
The recent period - and in particular the last six weeks of our peaceful revolution - has shown the enormous human, moral and spiritual potential, and the civic culture that slumbered in our society under the enforced mask of apathy. View quote
Václav Havel