Vaclav Havel via Fec

You do not become a ‘dissident’
just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career.

You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility,
combined with a complex set of external circumstances.

You are cast out of the existing structures
and placed in a position of conflict with them.

It begins as an attempt to do your work well,
and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

…He does not attempt to charm the public.

He offers nothing and promises nothing.

He can offer, if anything, only his own skin
—and he offers it solely because he has no other way
of affirming the truth he stands for.

His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen,
regardless of the cost.

Vaclav Havel via Fec