Vaclav Havel Quotes

People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.

We are all the writer-director-star-producer of our own life. We see life through our own eyes.

What people have thought of me, of the turns that I've taken, has never really played into my decisions.

You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.

The hero's will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism.

Strength isn't about bearing a cross of grief or shame. Strength comes from choosing your own path, and living with the consequences.

You really do learn by example... Especially women, sometimes we think somebody's going to rescue us, or somebody's going to teach us how to do it, when in fact we have to understand that the biggest resource we have is inside of ourselves. I know that I can count on me to take care of me. That's a very important thing to know.

You must accept the fact that there is no help but self-help. I cannot tell you how to gain freedom since freedom exists within you.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

All I'm gonna do is just go on and do what I feel.

I can't point to a single person or incident that changed my life, but the recognition that there is a certain world order, has been consequential. It has empowered me to do things my way. I found an inner truth by which I abide.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

I don't really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love.

The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

I am a great believer in people taking control of their own lives.

I want to do it because I want to do it.

I'm not driven by being understood.

I was always led to believe you should take care of yourself, trust in your abilities and you're the author of your own destiny.

My life choices are not supposed to be the gateway to somebody else's. That's my journey.

I know what I can do so it doesn't bother me what other people think or their opinion on the situation.

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

That's the kind of motif I bring to the books - that people take charge of their own lives.

Liberation does not come from outside.

No matter what happens to you, you can maintain your own control about what you believe and who you are.

You can be bound by physical things, as I am by certain sicknesses, but nevertheless you can still be free to recognize that all initiatives really come from yourself if you don't depend upon structures of government or structures of any kind.