Quotes from Milan Kundera

Comprende que esa impaciencia por hablar es a la vez una implacable falta de interés por escuchar

Everyone has trouble accepting the fact he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed in an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it's too late.

Pero ¿qué valor puede tener la vida si el primer ensayo para vivir es ya la vida misma? Por eso la vida parece un boceto. Pero ni siquiera boceto es la palabra precisa, porque un boceto es siempre un borrador de algo, la preparación para un cuadro, mientras que el boceto que es nuestra vida es un boceto para nada, un borrador sin cuadro.

La mayor desgracia posible es un matrimonio feliz; no le queda a uno la menor esperanza de divorciarse

For time spurred on by jealousy passes with amazing speed. Jealousy occupies the mind more completely than passionate intellectual work. The mind has not a moment of leisure. A victim of jealousy never knows boredom

battles over job and career, over every picture published. She had never been ambitious out of vanity. All she ever wanted was to escape from her mother's world. Yes, she saw it with absolute clarity: no matter how enthusiastic she was about taking pictures, she could just as easily have turned her enthusiasm to any other endeavour. Photography was nothing but a way of getting at 'something higher' and living beside Thomas.

Tereza burst out laughing Thomas laughed with her

Nimic nu-mi repugn? mai mult ca sentimentul fraternit??ii dintre oameni, stârnit de descoperirea unei josnicii comune. Nu tânjesc spre o asemnea fraternitate vâscoas?.

A nostalgia do Paraíso é o desejo que o homem tem de não ser homem.

novel: the realm where moral judgement is suspended. Suspending moral judgement is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. the art of the novel, which teaches the reader to be curious about others and to try to comprehend truths that differ from his own.

After all, when you give someone a present, you want to do so out of love, you want to give your friend a piece of heart!

The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.

There are moments in life when a man retreats defensively, when he must give ground, when he must surrender less important positions in order to protect the more important ones. It seemed to me that this single, most important position was my love.

Estão ambos classificados, etiquetados e é segundo a fidelidade de cada um à sua etiqueta que serão julgados (mas, é claro, é a isso e a nada mais que se chama com ênfase: ser fiel a si próprio).

la transformation de la musique en bruit est un processus planétaire qui fait entrer l'humanité dans la phase historique de la laideur totale.

conclusion that the love story of his life exemplified not "Es muss sein!" (It must be so), but rather "Es könnte auch anders sein" (It could just as well be otherwise).

This had always been repugnant to him, and he rebelled against that servitude by at least refusing to give women his soul, by safeguarding his freedom and solitude

A verdadeira bondade do homem só pode manifestar-se em toda a sua pureza e em toda a sua liberdade com aqueles que não representam força nenhuma. O verdadeira teste moral da humanidade são as suas relações com quem se encontra à sua mercê: isto é, com os animais.

Ä°nsan hayat?na son verebilir ama ölümsüzlüÄŸüne son veremez.

We can never know what we want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come. Was it better to be with Tereza or to remain alone? There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?

Olla naine on Sabinale saatus, mida ta pole endale valinud. Seda, mida me pole endale valinud, ei saa me pidada enda teeneks ega ebaõnneks. Sabina arvab, et osaks antud saatusega on vaja korralist suhet pidada. Mässata selle vastu, et oled sündinud naisena, on niisama sõge, nagu selle üle uhkust tunda.

Hayat bir kere yaÅŸand??? için yarg?lanamaz.

Por uma certa parte de nós mesmos, vivemos todos além do tempo. Talvez só tomemos consciência da nossa idade em certos momentos excepcionais, sendo, na maior parte do tempo, uns sem-idade

How many ancient myths begin with the rescue of an abandoned child! If Polybus hadn't taken in the young Oedipus, Sophocles wouldn't have written his most beautiful tragedy!