The longing for Paradise is man's longing not to be man. Milan Kundera More Quotes by Milan Kundera More Quotes From Milan Kundera Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman). Milan Kundera passionsleeplove Beauty is a rebellion against time. Milan Kundera rebellion As you live out your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom. Milan Kundera desolationchoicesunhappy 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. Milan Kundera mistakebeautifulmen Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. Milan Kundera compassionanimalattitude But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself? Milan Kundera writing Optimism is the opium of the people. Milan Kundera optimismoptimisticpeople The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful ... Love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory. Milan Kundera brainbeautifulmemories Suspending moral judgment 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. From the viewpoint of the novel's wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil. Milan Kundera judgingviewsevil Darling, my darling, don't think that I don't love you or that I didn't love you, but it's precisely because I love you that I couldn't have become what I am today if you were still here. It's impossible to have a child and despise the world as it is, because that's the world we've put the child into. The child makes us care about the world, think about it's future, willingly join in its racket and its turmoils, take its incurable stupidity seriously. Milan Kundera love-youchildrenthinking How could she feel nostalgia when he was right in front of her? How can you suffer from the absence of a person who is present? You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more. Milan Kundera glimpsenostalgiasuffering Necessity knows no magic formulae-they are all left to chance. If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi's shoulders. Milan Kundera magiclove-isbird Sleep in my arms. Like a baby bird. Like a broom among brooms... in a broom closet. Like a tiny parrot. Like a whistle. Like a little song. A song sung by a forest... within a forest... a thousand years ago. Milan Kundera sleepsongbaby I think, therefore I am' is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches. Milan Kundera intelligentintellectualthinking A man able to think isn't defeated - even when he is defeated. Milan Kundera ablementhinking She regarded books as the emblems of secret brotherhood. A man with this sort of library couldn't possibly hurt her. Milan Kundera hurtmenbook loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away. Milan Kundera empiresunbearableideas The very beginning of Genesis tells us that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse. There is no certainty that God actually did grant man dominion over other creatures. What seems more likely, in fact, is that man invented God to sanctify the dominion that he usurped for himself over the cow and the horse. Milan Kundera horsemenorder Happiness is the longing for repetition. Milan Kundera laughterjoyhappiness But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave. Milan Kundera unbearablestronghurt
