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.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesI felt the need to stir things up, ... To confront others for a change and force them to deal with a situation that I myself had created.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesHope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesHope 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.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesIsn'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...
in Vaclav Havel QuotesA state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit. A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesWhen the internal crisis of the totalitarian system grows so deep that it becomes clear to everyone, and when more and more people learn to speak their own language and reject the hollow, mendacious language of the powers that be, it means that freedom is remarkably close, if not directly within reach,
in Vaclav Havel QuotesAnyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous. anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesYou do not become a ''dissident'' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesHe tries to explain why man behaves most improbably, strangely, at variance with his nature, how it is possible for instance that a calm, rather neutral petty bourgeois is all of a sudden capable of commanding a concentration camp, burning to death or gassing thousands of people, and afterwards returning to his clerk's life as if nothing happened,
in Vaclav Havel QuotesThe exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesFor 15 years the Government of Burma has refused to implement recommendations made by the UN and the situation is getting worse, ... In fact, the situation in Burma is much more severe compared to other countries in which the Security Council has chosen to act in recent years.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesThe 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.
in Vaclav Havel QuotesFor 15 years the Government of Burma [Myanmar] has refused to implement recommendations made by the UN and the situation is getting worse,
in Vaclav Havel QuotesWork for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
in Vaclav Havel Quotes
