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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.

Vaclav Havel

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Vaclav Havel
Age: 75 †
Born: 1936
Born: October 5
Died: 2011
Died: December 18
Director
Dissident
Essayist
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Leader
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Praha
Vaclav Havel
Heart
Badly
Carry
Sure
Hope
Ends
Wells
Pessimist
Everything
Optimist
Well
Hopeful

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I have read somewhere that in a totalitarian system martyrdom does better than thought.
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The truth is not simply what you think it is it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.
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There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them.
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Communism was overthrown by life, by thought, by dignity.
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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.
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We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.
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Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
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Ultimately, power only really listens to power, and if government is to be improved, we must be able to threaten its existence, not merely its reputation.
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The cliché organizes life it expropriates people's identity it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.
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Truth is not merely what we are thinking, but also why, to whom and under what circumstances we say it.
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Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
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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.
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Technological measures are important, but equally important is... a consciousness of the commonality of all living beings and an emphasis on shared responsibility.
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The law is only one of several imperfect and more or less external ways of defending what is better in life against what is worse. By itself, the law can never create anything better. 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.
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We fell morally ill because we became used to saying something different from what we thought.
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The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing, and ... often, paradoxically, it is literature that suffers for it.
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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.
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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.
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Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience.
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The Declaration of Independence states that 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.
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