Quotes from Milan Kundera

I never forgot that, because, though I was only a child, something seemed to become clear to me: this is existence as such confronting time as such; and that confrontation, I understood, is named boredom.

le but que l'on poursuit est toujours voilé. Une jeune fille qui a envie de se marier a envie d'une chose qui lui est tout à fait inconnue. Le jeune homme qui court après la gloire n'a aucune idée de ce qu'est la gloire. Ce qui donne un sens à notre conduite nous est toujours totalement inconnu. (partie III, ch. 10)

the world has become man's right and everything in it has become a right: the desire for love the right to love, the desire for rest the right to rest, the desire for friendship the right to friendship, the desire to exceed the speed limit the right to exceed the speed limit, the desire for happiness the right to happiness, the desire to publish a book the right to publish a book, the desire to shout in the street in the middle of the night the right to shout in the street.

Muss es sein? Es muss sein!

Y es que las preguntas verdaderamente serias son aquellas que pueden ser formuladas hasta por un niño. Sólo las preguntas más ingenuas son verdaderamente serias. Son preguntas que no tienen respuesta. Una pregunta que no tiene respuesta es un barrera que no puede atravesarse. Dicho de otro modo: precisamente las preguntas que no tienen respuesta son las que determinan las posibilidades del ser humano, son las que trazan las fronteras de la existencia del hombre.

Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far-off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding

Porque es así y vale para todos: nunca sabremos por qué irritamos a la gente, qué es lo que nos hace simpáticos, qué es lo que noshace ridículos; nuestra propia imagen es para nosotros nuestro mayor misterio

El hombre no es más que su imagen. Los filósofos pueden decirnos que es irrelevante lo que el mundo piense de nosotros, que sólo vale lo que somos. Pero los filósofos no comprenden nada. En la medida en que vivimos con la gente, no somos más que lo que la gente piensa que somos.

Esa preocupación por la propia imagen, ahí es donde reside la fatal inmadurez del hombre

For seven years he had lived bound to her,his every step subject to her scrutiny. She might as well have chained iron balls to his ankles. Suddenly his step was much lighter. He soared. He had entered Parmenides' magic field: he was enjoying the sweet lightness of being''.

Só o acaso pode nos parecer uma mensagem. Aquilo que acontece por necessidade, aquilo que é esperado e se repete cotidianamente é coisa muda apenas.

?ovjek sve proživljava prvi put i bez priprema. Kao glumac koji igra predstavu bez ikakve probe. Pa koliko onda vrijedi život ako je prva proba života ve? život sam? Život je zato uvijek sli?an skici.

The goals we pursue are always veiled... The thing that gives us our every move its meaning is always unknown to us.

O acaso tem seus sortilégios, a necessidade não. Para que um amor seja inesquecível, é preciso que os acasos se encontrem nele desde o primeiro instante como os pássaros nos ombros de São Francisco de Assis.

The more vast the amount of time we've left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us to return to it. This pronouncement seems to state the obvious and yet it is false. Men grow old, the end grows near, each moment becomes more and more valuable and there is no time to waste on recollection. It's important to understand the mathematical paradox in nostalgia, that it is most powerful in early youth , when the volume of life that has passed is quite small.

Quien busque el infinito que cierre los ojos

Optimismus je opium lidstva!Zdravý duch páchne blbostí. AÃ…Â¥ žije Trockij! Ludvík

Cómo es posible condenar algo fugaz?

The formal innovations of the great masters always have a certain discreetness about them; such is true perfection; only among the small masters does novelty seek to call attention to itself.

She knew that she had become a burden to him: she took things too seriously, turning everything into a tragedy, and failed to grasp the lightness and amusing insignificance of physical love. How she wished she could learn lightness! She yearned for someone to help her out of her anachronistic shell.

For he was aware of the great secret of life: Women don't look for handsome men. Women look for men who have had beautiful women. Having an ugly mistress is therefore a fatal mistake

Pero después llega un momento en el que estás frente al espejo y te preguntas: ¿esto soy yo? ¿y por qué? ¿por qué me he solidarizado con esto? ¿y a mi qué me importa este rostro? Y en ese momento todo empieza a hundirse. Todo empieza a hundirse.

Her weakness was aggressive and kept forcing him to capitulate until eventually he lost his strength and was transformed into the rabbit in her arms .

No, vertigo is something other than the fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.