If every day a man takes orders in silence from an incompetent superior, if every day he solemnly performs ritual acts which he privately finds ridiculous, if he unhesitatingly gives answers to questionnaires which are contrary to his real opinions and is prepared to deny his own self in public, if he sees no difficulty in feigning sympathy or even affection where, in fact, he feels only indifference or aversion, it still does not mean that he has entirely lost the use of one of the basic human senses, namely, the sense of humiliation.
More Quotes from Vaclav Havel:
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.Vaclav Havel
The 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.
Vaclav Havel
When 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,
Vaclav Havel
Our task is to feel the danger of these regimes.
Vaclav Havel
For 15 years the Government of Burma (Myanmar) has refused to implement recommendations made by the UN and the situation is getting worse,
Vaclav Havel
The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public, he offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin -- and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.
Vaclav Havel
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Based on Topics: Facts Quotes, Man Quotes, Sense & Perception Quotes, Silence QuotesBased on Keywords: feigning, questionnaires, solemnly, unhesitatingly
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
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She has turned the British bulldog into a Reagan poodle.
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Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.
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