Extract from Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel’s Address to the United States Congress

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, it was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that the author backed it up with his life. It was not just his words; it was his deed as well.

Published in “Upheaval in the East; Excerpts from Czech Chief’s Address to Congress,” New York Times, 21 Feb. 1990.