Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel; 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech writer, philosopher, dissident, and statesman. From 1989 to 1992, he served as the last president of Czechoslovakia. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republicafter the Czech–Slovak split. Within Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs...
NationalityCzechoslovakian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth5 October 1936
CityPrague, Czech Republic
hygiene suffering literature
The attempt to devote oneself to literature alone is a most deceptive thing, and often, paradoxically, it is literature that suffers for it.
absolutely against law legal spirit
That is very dangerous, ... in an absolutely legal way and in accordance with the wording of the law, but against the spirit of the ... constitution.
imagine last quite
I can imagine this is something that will last quite a while,
atlantic doubt historic leadership mind north personal treaty
Mr. President, for the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization there's no doubt in my mind that it was personal leadership that made this historic development possible.
enter freedom great leaving office realm speak
I feel with leaving office I will enter a new realm of great freedom than I have had ... and I will speak more freely,
economical intelligence-and-intellectuals sort
Now we have a sort of economical drying of intellectuals,
absence absurdity deeper experience meaning
The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning -- in other words, of absurdity --the more energetically meaning is sought.
barriers beginning flood maximum worst
It is the beginning of the worst moment. All of the flood barriers are at their maximum level.
burma government implement refused situation un
For 15 years the Government of Burma (Myanmar) has refused to implement recommendations made by the UN and the situation is getting worse,
act burma chosen compared council countries government implement recent refused security severe situation un
For 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.
Theater is there to search for questions. It doesn't give you instructions.
hope regardless turn turns
Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
afterwards behaves bourgeois burning capable commanding concentration death explain instance life man neutral petty possible rather returning sudden thousands tries
He 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,
absolutely deserve happy literature nobel prize won
You have no idea how happy I am that you have won the Nobel Prize in literature. I think you absolutely deserve it.