Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Milan Kundera Quotes - Page 6

All Quotes Adventure Age Ambition Art Attitude Beauty Betrayal Brotherhood Certainty Character Childhood Children Choices Coincidence Compassion Culture Darkness Desire Doubt Drama Evil Fashion Feelings Film Funny Giving Goodness Happiness Hatred Heart Home Hurt Imagination Immortality Inspirational Joy Judgment Laughter Life Love Lying Memories Metaphor Morality Morning Nostalgia Passion Past Pleasure Reality Running Sadness Sleep Soul Struggle Stupidity Suffering Today Understanding Violence War Water Writing

The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone.

The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone.

Mistake, Choices, Matter

A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.

Travel, Two, Space

Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the viewpoint of the novel's wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.

Views, Evil, Judging

"Testaments Betrayed". Book by Milan Kundera, 1995.

Once her love had been publicized, it would gain weight, become a burden.

Weight, Gains, Burden

loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.

Ideas, Empires, Unbearable

He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

Plato, Philosophy, Love Is

Seeing is limited by two borders: Strong light, which blinds, and total darkness.

Strong, Two, Light

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

Love Is, Half, Unbearable

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness. What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being.

Drama, Unbearable, Burden

The Unbearable Lightness of Being pt. 3, ch. 10 (1984) (translation by Michael Henry Heim)

Man reckons with immortality, and forgets to reckon with death.

Men, Forget, Immortality

She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: We are at the last station. The happiness meant: We are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.

Sadness, Space, Together

Our historical experience teaches us that men imitate one another, that their attitudes are statistically calculable, their opinions manipulable, and that man is therefore less an individual (a subject) than an element in a mass.

Attitude, Men, Historical

Listening to a news broadcast is like smoking a cigarette and crushing the butt in the ashtray.

Crush, Smoking, Listening

Those boobs of yours are ubiquitous - like God!

Children, Never look Back!" and this meant that we must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory . for children have no past, and that is the whole secret of the magical innocence of their smiles.

Memories, Children, Past

Immortality is a ridiculous illusion, an empty word, a butterfly net chasing the wind.

Butterfly, Wind, Ridiculous

But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.

Strong, Hurt, Unbearable

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

The only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other.

Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Claims, Partners

"Nesnesitelna lehkost byti (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

Ah, ladies and gentlemen, a man lives a sad life when he cannot take anything or anyone seriously.

Men, Sad Life, Gentleman

Milan Kundera (1974). “Laughable Loves”

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question.

Novelists, World, Teach

"The Most Original Book of the Season". Interview with Philip Roth, www.nytimes.com. November 30, 1980.

And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?

Rehearsal, Firsts, Unbearable

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.

Happiness, Running, Time

Eroticism is like a dance: one always leads the other.

Inspirational, Dance, Dancing

Speak truth to power.

Speak, Speak The Truth

Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us.

Messages, Chance, Speak

"A Message for Ján Mančuška" by Rachel Mason, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 28, 2013.

You May Also Like: