“A whole life has already been determined at a stage when we didn't know a thing” — 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
Only a literary work that reveals an unknown fragment of human existence has a reason for being. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
He Kept recalling her lying on his bed; she reminded him of no one in his former life. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“extremes mean borders beyond which life ends…and a passion for extremism is a veiled longing for death.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“he tried to design his life in such a way that no woman could move in with a suitcase” — 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
“Even a life of suffering has a mysterious value. Even a life on the threshold of death is a thing of splendor.… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
But was it love? The feeling of wanting to die beside her was clearly exaggerated: he had seen her only once before… — 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… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“People meet in the course of life, they talk together, they discuss, they quarrel, without realizing that they're talking to one another… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
I am incapable of speaking of myself and of my life and the states of my soul, I am discreet to an… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable… — 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
From the top of the staircase she sees the London train, modern and elegant, and she tells herself again: Whether it's good… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
We are born one time only, we can never start a new life equipped with the experience we've gained from the previous… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“Fully aware that life is too short for the choice to be anything but irreparable, he had been distressed to discover that… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“It is wrong, then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences (like the meeting of Anna, Vronsky, the railway… — 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
Graphomania (a mania for writing books) inevitably takes on epidemic proportions when a society develops to the point of creating three basic… — 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
The heaviest of burdens is simultaneously an image of life's most intense fullfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come… — 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
“The termites of reduction have always gnawed away at life: even the greatest love ends up as a skeleton of feeble memories.” — 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
When his wife was at his side, she was also in front of him, marking out the horizon of his life. Now… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“All of man's life among his kind is nothing other than a battle to seize the ear of others.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
People fascinated by the idea of progress never suspect that every step forward is also a step on the way to the… — 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
Believe me, nothing is more beautiful than to carry out crazy ideas. I'd like my whole life to be one single crazy… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Extremism means borders beyond which life ends, and a passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“[mother] belonged to a realm of other creatures: smaller, lighter, more easily blown away.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“...because love is continual interrogation. I don't know of a better definition of love.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“In spite of their love, they had made each other's life a hell. The fact that they loved each other was merely… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
If I had two lives, in one life I could invite her to stay at my place, and in the second life… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“The feeling, the irrepressible yearning to return, suddenly reveals to her the existence of the past, the power of the past, 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
“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
“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
The beauty of New York is unintentional; it arose independent of human design, like a stalagmite cavern. — Milan Kundera Copy Share
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
“Our lives may be separate, but they run in the same direction, like parallel lines.” — Milan Kundera Copy Share
“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
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
“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
“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
“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
“Os extremos delimitam a fronteira para além da qual a vida termina, e a paixão pelo extremismo, tanto em arte como em política, é… — Milan Kundera Copy Share
The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by… — Milan Kundera Copy Share
Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. — Milan Kundera Copy Share
![“[Human lives] are composed like music. Guided by his sense of beauty, an individual tranforms a fortuitous occurrence into a motif, which then assumes a permanent place in the composition of the individual's life. Anna [Karenina] could have chosen another way to take her life. But the motif of…” quote by Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/681/milan-kundera-120_beauty_human-lives-are-composed-like-music-guid_2017337.jpg)
![“[mother] belonged to a realm of other creatures: smaller, lighter, more easily blown away.” quote by Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/953/milan-kundera-120_human_mother-belonged-to-a-realm-of-other-crea_907306.jpg)
