Vaclav Havel Quotes

He who knows how will always work for he who knows why.

I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.

Busy is good, isn't it? Busy means we're hard at it, achieving our ends or "goals." Haven't had time to stop, or look around or think. That's considered the sign of a life well lived ... Suppose, though, you're not sure that what you're doing is at all worthwhile. Suppose you blundered into it over a spoonful of lime pickle. It's easy, it pays quite well. But really it's a distraction. It stops you thinking about what you ought to be doing.

A life without a cause is a life without effect.

Merely to exist is not enough.

There must exist a paradigm, a practical model for social change that includes an understanding of ways to transform consciousness that are linked to efforts to transform structures.

It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.

Living is having and following a purpose. That's all.

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.

My goal was to do something that incorporated all the stuff I do and have it feel like something new, like it was hopefully taking the stand-up special paradigm and turning it on its head.

The goal of life is not to have our lives mean something to ourselves. The goal of life is to have our lives mean something to others.

I figured out in my thirties it was about 'what can I contribute'? And what I figured out about that is creating something from scratch, and connecting it to people.

Without context words and actions have no meaning at all

Purpose directs energy, and purpose makes energy.

Quality … has to do with intention.

There is no failure except failure to serve one's purpose.

A sign is always less than the thing it points to, and a symbol is always more than we can understand at first sight. Therefore we stop at the sign but go on to the goal it indicates; but we remain with the symbol because it promises more than it reveals.

A man without a sense of purpose, even one whose bank accounts are stuffed with money, is always a small man.

You can never be happy until you understand why you're doing what you're doing.

Life is meant to be lived.

Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.

The club that kills can drive a stake into the ground to hold a shelter. The hands that build bombs can be used to build schools. The minds that coordinate the activities of violence can coordinate the activities of cooperation. When the activities of life are infused with reverence, they come alive with meaning and purpose.

Free from what? What does that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall your eye show to me: free for what?

Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point MY POINT EXACTLY.