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So we die before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to their natural end.

Great times call for great men. There are unknown heroes who are modest, with none of the historical glamour of a Napoleon. If you analysed their character you would find that it eclipsed even the glory of Alexander the Great. Today you can meet in the streets of Prague a shabbily dressed man who is not even himself aware of his significance in the history of the great new era. He goes modestly on his way, without bothering anyone. Nor is he bothered by journalists asking for an interview. If you asked him his name he would answer you simply and unassumingly: 'I am Švejk….'

In a democracy ...someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.

In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness.

Hatred also is short lived; but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten

You can now, if you choose, employ your present success to advantage, so as to keep what you have got and gain honour and reputation besides, and you can avoid the mistake of those who meet with an extraordinary piece of good fortune, and are led on by hope to grasp continually at something further, through having already succeeded without expecting it.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.

[W]e must make up our minds to look for our protection not to legal terrors but to careful administration.

Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.

" we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honesty,"

Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.

Contempt for an assailant is best shown by bravery in action.