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
Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
“We go through the present blindfolded... Only later, when the blindfold is removed and we examine the past, do we realise what… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
For Sabina, living in truth, lying neither to ourselves nor to others, was possible only away from the public: the moment someone… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Modern stupidity means not ignorance but the nonthought of received ideas — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Living for Sabina meant seeing. Seeing is limited by two borders: strong light, which blinds, and total darkness. Perhaps that was what… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The day after his father left, Franz and his mother went into town together, and as they left home Franz noticed that… — 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
Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said. Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
From tender youth we are told by father and teacher that betrayal is the most heinous offence imaginable. But what is betrayal? Betrayal… — 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
Which doesn't mean, of course, that I'd stopped loving her, that I'd forgotten her, or that her image had paled; on the… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
When a private talk over a bottle of wine is broadcast on the radio, what can it mean but that the world… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Woman is the future of man. That means that the world which was once formed in man's image will now be transformed… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
While people are fairly young and the musical composition of their lives is still in its opening bars, they can go about… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Facts mean little compared to attitudes. To contradict rumor or sentiment is as futile as arguing against a believer's faith in the… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
Revolution in Love’. Can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you want free love as against bourgeois marriage, or… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
The word change, so dear to our Europe, has been given a new meaning: it no longer means a new stage of… — 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
There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it… — Milan Kundera Copy Share Image
In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of… — 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
“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
