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About this quote

What does it mean?
Intellectuals who support the winning side are often viewed with suspicion.
In plain terms
People doubt intellectuals who agree with the winners.
What can you take from it?
Be wary of intellectuals who align too closely with power.

Where it applies

  • political discourse
  • academic circles
  • public debate

Putting it to work

  • maintain intellectual independence
  • question aligned experts

Questions to consider

  • Why do we distrust success?
  • How do we judge an intellectual's loyalty?

Another view

Not all intellectuals on the winning side lack integrity.

More from Vaclav Havel

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  2. There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its trut…

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  3. The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought.

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