Quotes from Milan Kundera

Franz could not accept that the fact that the glory of the Grand March was equal to the comic vanity of its marchers.

For a trial is initiated not to render justice but to annihilate the defendant. Even when the trial is of dead people, the point is to kill them off a second time: by burning their books; by removing their names from the schoolbooks; by demolishing their monuments; by rechristening the streets that bore their names.

He had come to find out once and for all that neither parades nor Sabina but rather the girl with the glasses was his real life, his only real life! He had come to find out that reality was more than a dream, much more than a dream!

Los cuerpos desnudos y mojados de las mujeres se empujaban impacientes para ver de cerca la muerte, para verla en una cara familiar, conocida.

Y así es como funciona el mundo que nos rodea. Si insistiese en decirle la verdad a la cara, eso significaría que me lo tomo en serio. Y tomarse en serio algo tan poco serio significa perder la seriedad. Yo, hermano, tengo que mentir si no quiero tomarme en serio a los locos y convertirme yo mismo en uno de los locos.

A man who loses his privacy loses everything, Sabina thought.

Ése es uno de los curiosos secretos de la vida, el de que los inocentes cargan con la culpa en lugar de los culpables.

It is a tragicomic fact that our proper upbringing has become an ally of the secret police. We do not know how to lie. The Tell the truth! imperative drummed into us by our mamas and papas functions so automatically that we feel ashamed of lying even to a secret policeman during an interrogation. It is simpler for us to argue with him or insult him (which makes no sense whatever) than to lie to his face (which is the only thing to do).

?loveško življenje se dogodi le enkrat, zato ne bomo nikoli zanesljivo vedeli, katera naša odlo?itev je bila prava in katera napa?na, zakaj v dani situaciji smo se lahko odlo?ili le enkrat. Ni nam bilo dano nobeno drugo, tretje življenje, da bi mogli razli?ne odlo?itve primerjati med seboj.

No es la necesidad, sino la casualidad la que esta llena de encantos, si el amor debe ser inolvidable, las casualidades deben volar hacia el, desde el primer momento

Love is by definition an unmerited gift; being loved without meriting it is the very proof of real love.

Für Sabina bedeutet Leben Sehen. Das Sehen wird durch zwei Pole begrenzt: das grelle, blendende Licht und das absolute Dunkel. […] Extreme markieren Grenzen, hinter denen das Leben zu ende geht, und die Leidenschaft für Extreme, in der Kunst wie in der Politik, ist eine verschleierte Todessehnsucht.

Jetzt hatte sie begriffen! Wer sich erinnern will, darf nicht an einem Ort verweilen und warten, bis die Erinnerungen von selbst kommen! Die Erinnerungen haben sich in alle Himmelsrichtungen verstreut, und man muss reisen, wenn man sie wiederfinden und aus ihren Schlupfwinkeln holen will!

Erotizam je komercijalno dvosmislen, jer premda svi priželjkuju erotski život, svi ga tako?er mrze kao uzrok svojih nesre?a, frustracija, zavisti, kompleksa, patnji.

Qualsiasi studente nell'ora di fisica può provare con esperimenti l'esattezza di un'ipotesi scientifica. L'uomo, invece, vivendo una sola vita, non ha alcuna possibilità di verificare un'ipotesi mediante un esperimento, e perciò non saprà mai se avrebbe dovuto o no dare ascolto al proprio sentimento.

It's a great consolation to think that when we've long been in the grave our noses will still be strolling the earth.

A vertigem não é o medo de cair, é outra coisa. É a voz do vazio embaixo de nós, que nos atrai e nos envolve, é o desejo da queda do qual logo nos defendemos aterrorizados.

Beauty, the last triumph possible for man who can no longer hope.

Only cactuses had perennial appeal. And cactuses were of no interest to her.

una decisión de peso, va unida a la voz del destino; el peso, la necesidad y el valor son tres conceptos internamente unidos: sólo aquello que es necesario, tiene peso; solo aquello que tiene peso, vale.

The only person who had ever really interrogated her was her husband, and that was because love is a constant interrogation.

Ng??i ta g?p nhau ngoài ??i, trò chuy?n, bàn cãi, gây g?, mà không bi?t Ä'ang nói chuy?n vá»›i nhau t? xa, t? nh?ng tr?m quan sát ???c dá»±ng lên ? nh?ng nÆ¡i khác nhau trong th?i gian

Il y a des situations où l'homme est condamné à donner un spectacle. Son combat contre le pouvoir silencieux, c'est le combat d'une troupe de théâtre qui s'attaque à une armée.

The fragile edifice of their love would certainly come tumbling down. For that edifice rested on the single column of her fidelity, and loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.