QuoteProject
When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete.
Vaclav Havel
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Complete freedom requires the unrestrained expression of truth.

This quote by Vaclav Havel emphasizes the intrinsic link between truth and freedom. It suggests that when truth is suppressed or limited, the concept of freedom itself becomes distorted and incomplete, highlighting the necessity for an open society where ideas can flow freely without censorship or restraint.

Themes

TruthFreedomExpressionSocietyHonesty

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech advocating for free speech and transparency in government.

More from Vaclav Havel

Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness a more humane society will not emerge.
Vaclav HavelRead
Ownership is not a vice, not something to be ashamed of, but rather a commitment, and an instrument by which the general good can be served.
Vaclav HavelRead
In my opinion, theater shouldn't give advice to citizens.
Vaclav HavelRead
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
Vaclav HavelRead
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 HavelRead
Human rights, human freedoms... and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world... while the state is a human creation, human beings are the creation of God.
Vaclav HavelRead

Similar quotes

We did not domesticate wheat; wheat domesticated us.
Yuval Noah HarariRead
Truth is the greatest of all national possessions. A state, a people, a system which suppresses the truth or fears to publish it, deserves to collapse.
Kurt EisnerRead
The only person for whom the house was in any way special was Arthur Dent, and that was only because it happened to be the one he lived in.
Douglas AdamsRead
Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
Alan KayRead
Historians are prophets with their face turned backward.
Friedrich SchillerRead
He cannot be strict in judging, who does not wish others to be strict judges of himself.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.