“It's not true that you should first think up an idea for a better world and only then "put it into practice," but, rather, through the fact of your existence in the world, you create the idea or manifest it — create it, as it were, from the "material of the world," articulate it in the "language of the world."”

Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 1 : Growing Up "Outside", p. 12

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It's not true that you should first think up an idea for a better world and only then "put it into practice," but, rath…" by Václav Havel?
Václav Havel photo
Václav Havel 126
playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of … 1936–2011

Related quotes

Sri Aurobindo photo
Anaïs Nin photo
Sri Chinmoy photo

“Instead of creating a reason why you cannot love the world, try to create a reason why you should and must love the world.”

Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru

#14550, Part 15
Seventy Seven Thousand Service-Trees series 1-50 (1998)

Sue Monk Kidd photo
Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“The world is my world: this is manifest in the fact that the limits of language (of that language which alone I understand) mean the limits of my world.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
Context: This remark provides the key to the problem, how much truth there is in solipsism. For what the solipsist means is quite correct; only it cannot be said, but makes itself manifest. The world is my world: this is manifest in the fact that the limits of language (of that language which alone I understand) mean the limits of my world. (5.62)

Jordan Peterson photo

“To live truly and effectively the idea of achievement must be given up. Put unsentimental piety first, turn your back on the world, and get on with it.”

Agnes Martin (1912–2004) American artist

In Martin's open letter, 1981 to the Whitney Museum of American Art; as quoted in 'The Heroic Art of Agnes Martin', by Hilton Als, NYR 14 July 2016
1980 - 2000

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Jane Roberts photo

Related topics