Quotes from Milan Kundera

But is not an event in fact more significant and noteworthy the greater the number of fortuities necessary to bring it about? Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.

We live in two different dimensions, you and I.

Aquello que no ha sido elegido por nosotros no podemos considerarlo ni como un mérito ni como un fracaso.

The larger the searchlight, the larger the searchlight of the unknown.

el acto del amor físico es un instante de absoluta intimidad en el que el mundo que nos rodea se convierte en un desierto interminable en medio del cual se aprietan uno contra otro dos cuerpos solitarios

La poesía lírica es un territorio en el que cualquier afirmación se hace verdad.

He was not sure he was doing the right thing, but he was sure he was doing what he wanted to do.

Let us suppose that such is the case, that somewhere in the world each of us has a partner who once formed part of our body. Tomas's other part is the young woman he dreamed about. The trouble is, man does not find the other part of himself. Instead, he is sent a Tereza in a bulrush basket. But what happens if he nevertheless later meets the one who was meant for him, the other part of himself? Whom is he to prefer? The woman from the bulrush basket or the woman from Plato's myth?

Não se pode, portanto, criticar o romance por seu fascínio pelos encontros misteriosos dos acasos (...) mas se pode, com razão, criticar o homem por ser cego a esses acasos, privando assim a vida da sua dimensão de beleza.

Holding her tightly in his arms and feeling her body tremble, he thought he could not endure his love.

Além de eloquentes, esses sonhos eram belos. Esse é um aspecto que escapou a Freud na sua teoria dos sonhos. (...) O sonho é a prova que imaginar, sonhar com aquilo que não acontece, é uma das mais profundas necessidades do homem.

Está pronta demais a prometer sem mostrar de maneira suficientemente clara que sua promessa não a obriga a nada.

Don't forget that not only was Socrates ugly but also that many famous women lovers did not distinguish themselves at all by their physical perfection. Aesthetic racism is almost always a sign of inexperience. Those who have not made their way far enough into the world of amorous delights judge women only by what can be seen. But those who really know women understand that the eye reveals only a minute fraction of what a woman can offer us

The dispute between those who believe that the world was created by God and those who think it came into being of its own accord deals with phenomena that go beyond our reason and experience. Much more real is the line separating those who doubt being as it is granted to man (no matter how or by whom) from those who accept it without reservation.

Now we can understand the meaning of Tereza's secret vice, her long looks and frequent glances in the mirror. It was a battle with her mother. It was a longing to be a body unlike other bodies, to find that the surface of her face reflected the crew of the soul charging up from below. It was not an easy task: her soul – her sad, timid, self-effacing soul – lay concealed in the depths of her bowels and was ashamed to show itself.

Do kláÅ¡tera odcházel kdysi lidé, kteÃ…â"¢í nesouhlasili se svÄ›tem a nebrali jeho trápení ani radosti za své. Ale naÅ¡e století odmítá pÃ…â"¢iznat lidem právo nesouhlasit se svÄ›tem.

Since its beginnings, Western music is bound, by an insurmountable convention, to the need to express subjectivity. It stands against the harsh sound of the outside world just as the sensitive soul stands against the insensibility of the universe.

O mais pesado dos fardos nos esmaga, verga-nos, comprime-nos contra o chão. Na poesia amorosa de todos os séculos, porém, a mulher deseja receber o fardo do corpo masculino. O mais pesado dos fardos é, portanto, ao mesmo tempo a imagem da realização vital mais intensa. Quanto mais pesado é o fardo, mais próxima da terra está nossa vida, e mais real e verdadeira ela é.

Change the world! In Pontevin's view, what a monstrous goal! Not because the world is so admirable as it is but because any change leads inevitably to something worse.

Bilo je uzaludno razumom napadati ?vrste bedeme iracionalnih osje?aja od kojih je, kažu, umiješana ženska duša. Naš je razgovor od samog po?etka dobio loš predznak.

Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love

When he asked her why she was so silent, she told him she had not been satisfied with their lovemaking. She said he had made love to her like an intellectual.

Cuando las pruebas se hicieron demasiado evidentes, procuró demostrar que su poligamia no era en absoluto contradictoria con su amor por ella.

Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs outside of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message as much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.