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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

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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
Law
Shared
Moral
Properly
Values
Obligation
Government
Market
Without
Democratic
Entrenched
Even
Neither
Obligations
Function
Widely
Economy
Commonly

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Whether all is really lost or not depends entirely on whether or not I am lost.
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In my opinion, theater shouldn't give advice to citizens.
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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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Hope 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.
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You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.
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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.
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Nothing is more powerful than individuals acting out of their own conscience.
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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.
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Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
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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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In any case, ideals are something we strive for they are somewhere on the horizon of our efforts they provide meaning and direction they are not, however, static quotas that we either fulfill or do not.
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There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.
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I do think Russian foreign policy is very savvy. There's a need for great caution because the Russians are able to discreetly blackmail countries.
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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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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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We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.
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It is not enough to invent new machines, new regulations, or new institutions. We must understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this earth.
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The previous regime ... reduced man to a means of production and nature to a tool of production. Thus it attacked both their very essence and their mutual relationship. It reduced gifted and autonomous people to nuts and bolts in some monstrously huge, noisy, and stinking machine.
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The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.
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The salvation of the world lies in the human heart.
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