Václav Havel Quote

There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. Besides, to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that might slumber unobtrusively within them — isn't this, after all, the true vocation of the intellectual?

Speech of October 1989, accepting a peace prize; quoted in The Independent, London (9 December 1989).