The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less. Vaclav Havel More Quotes by Vaclav Havel More Quotes From Vaclav Havel English is the 'language of liberty' for nations emerging from years of cultural oppression. Vaclav Havel liberty language years The most important thing is that man should be the measure of all structures, including economic structures, and not that man be made to measure for those structures. The most important thing is not to lose sight of personal relationships - i.e., the relationships between man and his co-workers, between subordinates and their superiors, between man and his work, between this work and its consequences. Vaclav Havel important sight men The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him. Vaclav Havel destiny real men I have found that good taste, oddly enough, plays an important role in politics. Why is it like that? The most probable reason is that good taste is a visible manifestation of human sensibility toward the world, environment, people. Vaclav Havel important play people Without the constantly living and articulated eperience of absurdity, there would be no reason to attempt to do something meaningful. And on the contrary, how can one experience one's own absurdity if one is not constantly seeking meaning? Vaclav Havel would-be reason meaningful People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being. Vaclav Havel political party people It's not hard to stand behind one's successes. But to accept responsibility for one's failures... that is devishly hard! Vaclav Havel failure accepting responsibility We ask ourselves all kinds of questions, such as why does a peacock have such beautiful feathers, and we may answer that he needs the feathers to impress a female peacock, but then we ask ourselves, and why is there a peacock? And then we ask, why is there anything living? And then we ask, why is there anything at all? And if you tell some advocate of scientism that the answer is a secret, he will go white hot and write a book. But it is a secret. And the experience of living with the secret and thinking about it is in itself a kind of faith. Vaclav Havel writing beautiful book If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed. Vaclav Havel honesty hero jobs Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost. Vaclav Havel depends lost When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete. Vaclav Havel truth-is given hero If by believing you mean praying to an anthropomorphic deity who created the world and half controls it and half observes it, then I am probably not a believer. But if you mean that it is not all accidental, that there is a mystery to existence, a deeper meaning, that I do believe in. Vaclav Havel half mean believe 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 family love life Someone who does not draw strength from himself and who is incapable of finding the meaning of his life within himself will...seek the map to his own orientation somewhere outside himself-in some ideology, organization, or society, and then, however active he may appear to be, he is merely waiting, depending. He waits to see what others will do, or what roles they will assign to him, and he depends on them-and if they don't do anything or if they botch things, he succumbs to disillusion, despair, and ultimately, resignation. Vaclav Havel strength organization inspirational Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly. Vaclav Havel moral government law All human suffering concerns each human being. Vaclav Havel concern humans suffering 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. Vaclav Havel democracy rights ideas We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought. Vaclav Havel used different integrity There appear to be no integrating forces, no unified meaning, no true inner understanding of phenomena in our experience of the world. Experts can explain anything in the objective world to us, yet we understand our own lives less and less. In short, we live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain. Vaclav Havel understanding experts world Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life. Vaclav Havel suicidal suicide hero
