"The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought"
About this Quote
The intent is quietly defiant. Havel refuses the fashionable resignation that treats meaning as naive and cynicism as sophistication. In his worldview, the experience of “absence” is not a dead end but a trigger. Absurdity becomes evidence of distortion, and distortion becomes a call to action. That’s why the phrasing matters: “energetically” suggests not contemplation but movement, heat, risk. Meaning isn’t discovered like a lost object; it’s pursued like a dissident pursues a leaflet press - with urgency and consequence.
The subtext carries the DNA of Havel’s “living in truth”: when official life is a theater of lies, the search for meaning isn’t self-help, it’s resistance. Context sharpens the stakes. A playwright turned president, he watched how regimes and modern bureaucracies alike can make language brittle, ritualized, unusable. His claim is that spiritual nausea can catalyze civic courage. Absurdity is the pressure; meaning-seeking is the leak where freedom begins.
Quote Details
| Topic | Meaning of Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Havel, Vaclav. (2026, January 15). The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-deeper-the-experience-of-an-absence-of-154246/
Chicago Style
Havel, Vaclav. "The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-deeper-the-experience-of-an-absence-of-154246/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning - in other words, of absurdity - the more energetically meaning is sought." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-deeper-the-experience-of-an-absence-of-154246/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
