Quotes by Vaclav Havel

About Vaclav Havel:

Václav Havel is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

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

Vaclav Havel

Lying can never save us from another lie.

Vaclav Havel

Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.

Vaclav Havel

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.

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

Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising.

Vaclav Havel

There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.

Vaclav Havel

I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.

Vaclav Havel

I think it's important for one to take a certain distance from oneself.

Vaclav Havel

But if I were to say who influenced me most, then I'd say Franz Kafka. And his works were always anchored in the Central European region.

Vaclav Havel

In my opinion, theater shouldn't give advice to citizens.

Vaclav Havel

Theater is there to search for questions. It doesn't give you instructions.

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

True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say?

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

The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment. We feel morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought. Concepts such as love, friendship, compassion, humility or forgiveness lost their dept...

Vaclav Havel

The point I am trying to make is that words are a mysterious, ambiguous, ambivalent, and perfidious phenomenon. They can be rays of light in a realm of darkness. . . . They can equally be lethal arrows. Worst of all, at times they can be one or the o...

Vaclav Havel

Author Bio

  • NameVaclav Havel
  • Descriptionplaywright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician from the Czech Republic
  • BornOctober 5, 1936
  • DiedDecember 18, 2011
  • CountryCzech Republic
  • ProfessionWriter; Playwright; Politician; Director
  • WorksAntikódy; The Garden Party; Leaving; The Power Of The Powerless
  • AwardsCharlemagne Prize; Grand Cross Of The Legion Of Honour; Order Of The White Lion; Order Of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk; Presidential Medal Of Freedom; Order Of The White Double Cross; Order Of Vytautas The Great; Order Of The Cross Of Terra Mariana; Order Of The White Eagle; Commandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize; Order Of The Liberator General San Martín; Austrian Decoration For Science And Art; Order Of The Southern Cross; Austrian State Prize For European Literature; Knight Grand Cross Of The Order Of The Bath; Collar Of The Order Of Isabella The Catholic?; Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca; St. George's Order Of Victory; Order Of Prince Yaroslav The Wise; Order Of Brilliant Star; Gandhi Peace Prize; Order Of Merit Of The Italian Republic; Order Of Merit Of The Republic Of Hungary; Order Of State Of Republic Of Turkey; Order Of Merit Of The Federal Republic Of Germany; Order Of The Three Stars; Order Of Al-Hussein Bin Ali; Order Of Rio Branco; Order Of The Liberator General San Martín; Order Of The Republic; ; Order Of Liberty; Erasmus Prize; Franz Kafka Prize; Concordia Prijs; Companion Of The Order Of Canada; Peace Prize Of The German Book Trade; Olof Palme Prize; Indira Gandhi Prize; Princess Of Asturias Award - Communications And Humanities; Geuzenpenning; Four Freedoms Award - Freedom Medal; Philadelphia Liberty Medal; Freedom Award; Giuseppe Motta Medal; Light Of Truth Award; Monismanien Prize; Democracy Service Medal; Delta Prize For Global Understanding