Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
But then he told himself: What does it really mean to be useful? Today's world, just as it is, contains the sum… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
For existential mathematics, which does not exist, would probably propose this equation: the value of coincidence equals the degree of its improbability. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract'… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
To die; to decide to die; that's much easier for an adolescent than for an adult. What? Doesn't death strip an adolescent… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Aesthetic racism is almost always a sign of inexperience. Those who have not made their way far enough into the world of… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The novel is a territory where one does not make assertions; it is a territory of play and of hypotheses. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is easy enough: it means not lying, not hiding, and not… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Because beyond their practical function, all gestures have a meaning that exceeds the intention of those who make them; when people in… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The ludicrous element in our feeling does not make them any less authentic. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth, it means to discover a truth. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“When graves are covered with stones, the dead can no longer get out. But the dead can’t go out anyway! What difference… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Isn't beer the holy libation of sincerity? The potion that dispels all hypocrisy, any charade of fine manners? The drink that does… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“The future is only an indifferent void no one cares about, but the past is filled with life, and its countenance is irritating, repellent,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“From that time on they both looked forward to sleeping together. I might even say that the goal of their lovemaking was not so… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Beauty in the European sense has always had a premeditated quality to it. We've always had an aesthetic intention and a long-range plan. That's… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The beauty of New York is unintentional; it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Children, Never look Back!" and this meant that we must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory . for children have… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Our lives may be separate, but they run in the same direction, like parallel lines.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end." Love is a battle?" said Franz.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“He remained annoyed with himself until he realized that not knowing what he wanted was actually quite natural. We can never know what to… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Whenever I think about ancient cultures nostalgia seizes me. Perhaps this is nothing but envy of the sweet slowness of the history of that… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Do stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? For all my skepticism, some trace of irrational superstition did survive in me, the… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
