There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone for someone pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos.

Because of my parents' love of democracy we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

Through the inspiration of Vaclav's words the courage of his dissidence and the integrity of his leadership Czechoslovakia successfully transitioned from an authoritarian state to a free democracy at the heart of Europe.