Top 100 Václav Havel Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred.”

— Václav Havel

2. “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.”

— Václav Havel

3. “Courage means going against majority opinion in the name of the truth.”

— Václav Havel

Featured in: Courage Quotes

4. “It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”

— Václav Havel

5. “We live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.”

— Václav Havel

6. “Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.”

— Václav Havel

7. “Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it.”

— Václav Havel

8. “Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”

— Václav Havel

9. “Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.”

— Václav Havel

10. “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness a more humane society will not emerge.”

— Václav Havel

11. “Either we have hope within us or we don’t It is a dimension of the soul, and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the World or observation of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart.”

— Václav Havel

12. “If the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man.”

— Václav Havel

13. “The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.”

— Václav Havel

14. “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

15. “Education is the ability to perceive the hidden connections between phenomena.”

— Václav Havel

16. “Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly.”

— Václav Havel

17. “Human rights are universal and indivisible. Human freedom is also indivisible: if it is denied to anyone in the world, it is therefore denied, indirectly, to all people. This is why we cannot remain silent in the face of evil or violence; silence merely encourages them.”

— Václav Havel

18. “Hope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. Hope is just a feeling that life and work have a meaning.”

— Václav Havel

19. “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.”

— Václav Havel

20. “Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace.”

— Václav Havel

21. “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.”

— Václav Havel

22. “Lying can never save us from another lie.”

— Václav Havel

23. “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.”

— Václav Havel

24. “English is the ‘language of liberty’ for nations emerging from years of cultural oppression.”

— Václav Havel

25. “It seems to me that one of the most basic human experiences, one that is genuinely universal and unites-or, more precisely, could unite-all of humanity, is the experience of transcendence in the broadest sense of the word.”

— Václav Havel

26. “Communism was overthrown by life, by thought, by dignity.”

— Václav Havel

27. “Ownership is not a vice, not something to be ashamed of, but rather a commitment, and an instrument by which the general good can be served.”

— Václav Havel

28. “We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.”

— Václav Havel

29. “Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them.”

— Václav Havel

30. “All human suffering concerns each human being.”

— Václav Havel

31. “Self-confidence is not pride. Just the contrary: only a person or a nation that is self-confident, in the best sense of the word, is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving its enemies and regretting its own guilt.”

— Václav Havel

32. “Hope is the deep orientation of the human soul that can be held at the darkest times.”

— Václav Havel

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

— Václav Havel

34. “Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations.”

— Václav Havel

35. “Those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses.”

— Václav Havel

36. “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.”

— Václav Havel

37. “When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete.”

— Václav Havel

38. “There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.”

— Václav Havel

39. “Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost.”

— Václav Havel

40. “I am convinced that we will never build a democratic state based on rule of law if we do not at the same time build a state that is-regardless of how unscientific this may sound to the ears of a political scientist-humane, moral, intellectual and spiritual, and cultural.”

— Václav Havel

41. “I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence.”

— Václav Havel

42. “The Declaration of Independence states the the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.”

— Václav Havel

43. “Human rights, human freedoms, and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world. These values are as powerful as they are because, under certain circumstances, people accept them without compulsion and are willing to die for them.”

— Václav Havel

44. “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.”

— Václav Havel

45. “Our social and economic statistics are telling us what we already know in our hearts: we have created a world that works for only a few. To change this, we must learn to act toward each other and our environment in profoundly different ways.”

— Václav Havel

46. “The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.”

— Václav Havel

47. “Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren’t in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.”

— Václav Havel

48. “Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.”

— Václav Havel

49. “There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them.”

— Václav Havel

50. “Evil must be confronted in its womb and, if it can’t be done otherwise, then it has to be dealt with by the use of force.”

— Václav Havel