For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence? — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“History is as light as individual human life, unbearably light, light as a feather, as dust swirling into the air, as whatever… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“An optimist is someone who thinks that on planet number five the history of mankind will be less bloody. A pessimist is… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for someone to find himself on the other side of the border, where everything -… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“When Don Quixote went out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes. That is the legacy of… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Today history is no more than a thin thread of the remembered stretching over an ocean of the forgotten, but time moves… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“A novel does not assert anything, a novel poses questions... The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. When… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Having had occasion in the past to observe Communist statesmen, I saw with surprise that they were often extremely critical of the… — 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… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
At a time when history made its way slowly, the few events were easily remembered and woven into a backdrop, known to… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Too much faith is the worst ally. When you believe in something literally, through your faith you'll turn it into something absurd.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“We will never cease our critique of those persons who distort the past, rewrite it, falsify it, who exaggerate the importance of… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The history of music is mortal, but the idiocy of the guitar is eternal. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Before beauty disappears entirely from the earth, it will go on existing for a while by mistake. "Beauty by mistake"- the final… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“He saw the marching, shouting crowd as the image of Europe and its history. Europe was the Grand March. The march from… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Only from the perspective of such a utopia is it possible to use the concepts of pessimism and optimism with full justification:… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past. They are fighting for access to… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
We don't know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don't understand our name at… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Our historical experience teaches us that men imitate one another, that their attitudes are statistically calculable, their opinions manipulable, and that man… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“In times when history still moved slowly, events were few and far between and easily committed to memory. They formed a commonly… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“In Ferdydurke, Gombrowicz got at the fundamental shift that occurred during the twentieth century: until then mankind was divided in two--those who… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“They shout that they want to shape a better future, but it's not true. The future is only an indifferent void no… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“In times when history still moved slowly, events were few and far between and easily committed to memory. They formed a commonly… — 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
