91 quotes
The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order.
The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World (1994)
The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning — in other words, of absurdity — the more energetically meaning is sought.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
If the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.
Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.
Cultural conflicts are increasing and are understandably more dangerous today than at any other time in history.
The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World (1994)
It is not true that people of high principles are ill-suited for politics.
The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
There's always something suspicious about an intellectual on the winning side.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
I think theatre should always be somewhat suspect.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
There's always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.
Disturbing the Peace (1986)
The existence of a higher authority than man himself simply began to get in the way of human aspirations.
The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World (1994)
None of those who paid the price for our freedom should be forgotten.
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.
Letters to Olga (1988)