Prague , Czech Republic ( CNN ) -- Presidents and princes paid their final respects Friday to Vaclav Havel , the former Czech president , writer and dissident who helped bring down his country 's Communist regime and end the Cold War . Dignitaries inside Prague Castle 's towering St. Vitus Cathedal included former President Bill Clinton and his wife , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , while thousands of admirers stood outside in cold temperatures to watch the funeral on big screens . Havel , a shy but iron-willed intellectual endowed with a playful sense of humor and a powerful moral compass , died Sunday at the age of 75 . Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright , who was born in Prague , praised a man she said was pleased to have had as a friend . `` Few were as Czech as Vaclav Havel , but his wit and kindness , his wisdom and the depth of his thoughts spoke to all , '' she said , addressing mourners in Czech during the funeral . His former political advisor Jiri Pehe called Havel `` a politician who was n't a politician , catapulted into politics by history . Throughout his presidency he was a dissident politician who liked to do things in a different way . '' Speaking before the funeral , Pehe said he would remember Havel more for his personality than his politics , recalling his `` booming laugh '' and saying : `` to work with him was a joy ... To be around him was simply inspiring . '' Dissident friends of Havel arrived grim-faced for the funeral Friday . Many hugged each other before going into St. Vitus Cathedral . Havel 's picture stood to the side of the altar draped in black ribbon in a state funeral both grand and religious , an irony given his personal modesty and the fact that the Czech Republic is among the least religious countries in Europe . Former dissident and Havel friend Petr Uhl refused to come to the funeral , saying Havel was not a Christian and none of his predecessors had had a state funeral of this kind . Havel was `` a great figure of our modern history . ... A man whom we will remember with thanks and respect has gone , '' Czech President Vaclav Klaus told mourners , who also included French President Nicolas Sarkozy , British Prime Minister David Cameron and his predecessor John Major , and singer Suzanne Vega . Havel 's widow Dagmar sat next to Klaus in the front row , a few seats down from Ivan Havel , the late writer 's closest living blood relative . Members of the public fought back tears as the Czech song `` My Country '' swelled at the end of the funeral over a gun salute . Then they burst into applause -- as did some inside the cathedral -- as six soldiers shouldered Havel 's coffin and carried it out to a waiting hearse . Prague Castle did not announce where or when Havel would be buried , saying it was up to his family . Authorities estimated that 30,000 people lined up to bid farewell to Havel when his body lay in state on Wednesday and Thursday . They waited for hours in freezing weather in the early winter night before the funeral to pay their last respects , holding flowers , candles and notes to lay by his coffin . Many of the messages , from those handwritten by schoolchildren to those printed off computers , bore the same words : `` Thank you , Mr . President . '' Alena Sturmova , who came with her husband and son , remembers being at Prague Castle when Havel was elected the first post-Communist president of her country , almost 22 years ago to the day . Seeing him there on a balcony , instead of the Soviet-backed authorities who had governed her country her entire life , meant something special to her , she said : `` Maybe the possibility of freedom . '' Her husband , Daniel , called Havel `` a symbol of the Velvet Revolution , '' when Czechs and Slovaks overthrew an ossified regime by pouring into Prague 's Wenceslas Square and jingling their key rings as a signal to their leaders to go home . Havel was a symbol of that revolution , Daniel Sturm said by way of explaining why he and his family were waiting to lay flowers by Havel 's coffin . `` We just wanted to come here and tell him thank you , '' he said , before pausing and continuing : `` ... for the last time . '' Havel , a chain-smoking , rock-loving intellectual , became one of the world 's most famous dissidents in the 1970s for his public writings against Eastern Europe 's Communist regimes . He was jailed for about four and a half years over essays such as `` The Power of the Powerless , '' which urged people to simply stop pretending to believe the lies their government fed them and act on what they knew to be true . `` Truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred , '' Havel insisted . With the Soviet Union saying it would no longer intervene in the affairs of its satellites , and Communist regimes crumbling in Poland and East Germany in 1989 , Czechs and Slovaks rose up in answer to the call of Havel and other dissidents around him . In a matter of days , the authorities resigned and a parliament stuffed full of Communist party functionaries elected Havel president of Czechoslovakia . He served as head of state until politicians decided to divide the country in two in 1992 , then went on to be elected president of the Czech Republic twice . His country joined NATO and the European Union under his stewardship , but he lost out on many of the major domestic political battles of his presidency , including his effort to keep Czechoslovakia together .
World leaders attend the funeral of Vaclav Havel , who helped end communism in Czechoslovakia . Thousands of Czechs waited for hours in cold weather to pay their last respects . Score: 6 `` Truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred , '' Havel insisted .