The point where living within the truth ceases to be a mere negation of living with a lie … is marked by a relatively high degree of inner emancipation. It sails upon the vast ocean of the manipulated life like little boats, tossed by the waves but always bobbing back as visible messengers of living within the truth, articulating the suppressed aims of life.
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #truth #life

…you do not become a ‘dissident’ just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #dissidents

When I speak of living within the truth, I naturally do not have in mind only products of conceptual thought… It can be any means by which a person or a group revolts against manipulation…
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #truth

…everyone who is living within the lie…may be struck at any moment…by the force of truth…
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #truth

…living within the truth has more than a mere existential dimension (returning humanity to its inherent nature), or a noetic dimension (revealing reality as it is), or a moral dimension (setting an example for others). It also has an unambiguous political dimension. If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living the truth. This is why it must be suppressed more severely than anything else.
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #truth

…it is possible to live within the truth. Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. The principle must embrace and permeate everything. There are no terms whatsoever on which it can coexist with living within the truth, and therefore everyone who steps out of line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety.
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #truth

The essential aims of life are present naturally in every person. In everyone there is some longing for humanity’s rightful dignity, for moral integrity, for free expression of being and a sense of transcendence over the world of existences. Yet, at the same time, each person is capable, to a greater or lesser degree, of coming to terms with living within the lie. Each person somehow succumbs to a profane trivialization of his or her inherent humanity, and to utilitarianism. In everyone there is some willingness to merge with the anonymous crowd and to flow comfortably along with it down the river of pseudo-life.
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #values

Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system…
—Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless
#vaclavhavel #thepowerofthepowerless #lies