'Unlikely Hero' Vaclav Havel

The inspiration for the Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel died Saturday at the age of 75. He was one of the most honored men of his time. Amazingly, with all his awards, he never received the Nobel Peace Prize. (This says far more about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee than it does about Vaclav Havel.) Havel was an unlikely hero.

Vaclav Havel was not the type of person who seemed likely to drive great events and change the world. He wasn’t a politician or general, but a poet and playwright. He expressed ideas about freedom and humanity that were not appreciated by the Soviet overseers of his native Czechoslovakia.

He was sentenced to multiple prison stays for speaking out again communist oppression, and had to work in a brewery when he was banned from the theater. But the Kremlin couldn’t crush the power of his words.

His motto was "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate." And his philosophy of non-violent resistance inspired what became known as the Velvet Revolution - the bloodless overthrow of the communist domination of his native land.

Havel became the first President of the free Czech Republic, and freed his fellow prisoners of conscience from its prisons. Many have compared him to Nelson Mandela, and their lives were similar. His example and writings, like Mandela's, inspired movements for freedom and civil rights worldwide.

Today the internet is replete with accolades for this 'unlikely hero'.

Here are a few of Havel's famous quotes that have always impressed me.

Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.

Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity...

Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you.

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.

Oh that we could have more Havels in our world!

2011 April Lorier Perspective