Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Havel claims that words and truth can destabilize governments and are more powerful than military force.
In plain terms
Words and ideas can change governments more than armies can.
What can you take from it?
Truth and speech have immense power against oppression.

Where it applies

  • dissent
  • activism
  • political speech

Putting it to work

  • speak truth to power
  • use writing to organize
  • trust in words

Questions to consider

  • What power do your words hold?
  • How can language challenge authority?

Another view

Words alone may not stop violent force without organization.

More from Vaclav Havel

  1. There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. Besides, to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that m…

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. 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.

    Permalink to quote #6

Related quotes

  1. If there exists one unique great imperial power which is always convinced that its most brutal interests coincide with the Good; if it is true that every year …

    Alain BadiouAlain Badiou quote #6
  2. We must realize that today's Establishment is the New George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, h…

    William O. DouglasWilliam O. Douglas quote #19
  3. The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

    John AdamsJohn Adams quote #67