The familiar division of political thinkers into moralists and realists leads the author to the question of how to classify Ladislav Hejdánek’s unique yet ambiguous approach to public weal and matters politic. Does Hejdánek base his understanding of democracy and liberalism (and of liberties an drights thereunto appertaining) on morality (on philosophy or on system theory) or does he recognise the primacy of matters politic? Though in Hejdánek’s writings moral appeals are frequent and fundamental, the author seeks to show that realism prevails. In the present text, the author delineates the specific realism of this Czech thinker more precisely by analysing Hejdánek’s texts, especially his Epistles to a Friend.