If I hadn't met you, I'd certainly have fallen in love with him. by Milan Kundera

If I hadn't met you, I'd certainly have fallen in love with him.

Milan Kundera

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Categorized in : Ifs Fallen Mets

I find myself fascinating. by Milan Kundera

I find myself fascinating.

fascinating self

Only from the perspective of such a utopia is it possible to use the concepts of pessimism and optimism with full justification: an optimist is someone who thinks that on planet number five the history of mankind will be less bloody. A pessimist is one who thinks otherwise.

optimism numbers thinking

High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering the sequence of generations a relay race in which everyone surpasses his predecessor . . .

generations race children

Radio... force-feeds us music... everywhere and all the time... sewage-water music in which music is dying.

radio dying water

In eroticism as dance: one of the partners is always charged with... by Milan Kundera

In eroticism as dance: one of the partners is always charged with leading the other.

partners dance

High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering the sequence of generations a relay race in which everyone surpasses his predecessor, only to be surpassed by his successor. Without this relay race called history there would be no European art and what characterizes it: a longing for originality, a longing for change. Robespierre, Napoleon, Beethoven, Stalin, Picasso, they're all runners in the relay race, they all belong to the same stadium.

race children art

Biographers know nothing about the intimate sex lives of their ow... by Milan Kundera

Biographers know nothing about the intimate sex lives of their own wives,

marriage sex thinking

Until that time, her betrayals had filled her with excitement and joy, because they opened up new paths to new adventures of betrayal. But what if the paths came to an end? One could betray one's parents, husband, country, love, but when parents, husband, country, and love were gone - what was left to betray?

betrayal husband country

In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty.

beautiful beauty mean

Isn't beer the holy libation of sincerity? The potion that dispels all hypocrisy, any charade of fine manners? The drink that does nothing worse than incite its fans to urinate in all innocence, to gain weight in all frankness?

hypocrisy beer funny

The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented. It is that crossed border (the border beyond which my own "I" ends) which attracts me most. For beyond that border begins the secret the novel asks about. This novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become.

courage discovery character

If our planet has seen some eighty billion people it is difficult to suppose hat every individual has had his or her own repertory of gestures. Arithmetically, it is simply impossible. Without the slightest doubt, there are far fewer gestures in the world than there are individuals. That finding leads us to a shocking conclusion: a gesture is more individual than an individual. We could put it in the form of an aphorism: many people, few gestures.

doubt people world

In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed do... by Milan Kundera

In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body.

body age men

Aren't we living in a world where heedless men only desire decapi... by Milan Kundera

Aren't we living in a world where heedless men only desire decapitated women?

desire men world

...[P]eople who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest... by Milan Kundera

...[P]eople who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all... (p.24)

saddest rooftops joy

I have a strong will to love you for eternity. by Milan Kundera

I have a strong will to love you for eternity.

eternity strong love

From the top of the staircase she sees the London train, modern and elegant, and she tells herself again: Whether it's good luck or bad to be born onto this earth, the best way to spend a life here is to let yourself be carried along, as I am moving at this moment, by a cheerful, noisy crowd moving forward.

cheerful good-luck moving

In the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people. All the Communists who were hanged at the time by other Communists were awarded such abuse. Unlike those who had their feet solidly on the ground, they were said to float in the air. So it was fair, in a way, that as punishment the ground was permanently pulled out from under their feet, that they remained suspended a little above the floor.

cutting air feet

His overriding life necessity was not love, it was his profession…He had come to medicine not by coincidence or calculation but by a deep inner desire. Insofar as it is possible to divide people into categories, the surest criterion is the deep-seated desires that orient them to one or another lifelong activity. Every Frenchman is different. But all the actors the world over are similar.

medicine desire people

Dreaming is not merely an act of communication (or coded communication, if you like); it is also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself. Our dreams prove that to imagine--to dream about things that have not happened--is among mankind's deepest needs. Herein lies the danger. If dreams were not beautiful, they would be quickly forgotten.

dream beautiful lying