“Human life is bounded by two chasms: fanaticism on one side, absolute skepticism on the other.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return,… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“He had never wanted to know anything about the part of her intimate life that he had not shared with her. Why… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty. The more indifferent people are… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“For it is clear immediately: human life as such is a defeat. All we can do in the face of that ineluctable… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Living, there is no happiness in that. Living: carrying one’s painful self through the world. But being, being is happiness. Being: Becoming… — 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
“Mesmerized, all she can do is watch this piece of her life move off; all she can do is watch it and… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“No matter how brutal life becomes, peace always reign in the cemetery.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Only the basic situations in life occur only once, never to return. For a man to be a man, he must be… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“This symmetrical composition- the same motif appears at the beginning and at the end- may seem quite 'novelistic' to you, and I… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
This was exactly what the girl had most dreaded all her life and had scrupulously avoided until now: lovemaking without emotion or… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“[Human lives] are composed like music. Guided by his sense of beauty, an individual tranforms a fortuitous occurrence into a motif, which… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The psychological and physiological mechanism of love is so complex that at a certain period in his life a young man must… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
In the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“When we are thrust out into the world just as we are, we first have to identify with that particular throw of… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“He looks at Mama out of the corner of his eye, again surprised by how little she is. As if all of… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“But if we betray B., for whom we betrayed A., it does not necessarily follow that we have placated A. The life… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order. — 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
He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“And it isn't enough for us to identify with our selves, it is necessary to do so passionately, to the point of… — 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
