Milan Kundera Quotes

A collection of quotes by Milan Kundera.

Milan Kundera is a well-known Czech writer and novelist who was born on April 1, 1929, in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). He is recognized for his significant contributions to European literature, particularly for his novels often classified as postmodernist works.

Kundera's writing explores numerous themes, including existence, identity, love, politics, and personal freedom. His works are known for their philosophical depth and intricate narrative techniques. Some of his most celebrated novels include "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," and "Immortality." These literary masterpieces have garnered international praise and established Kundera as a leading figure in contemporary literature.

Aside from his success as a novelist, Kundera has also worked as a poet, playwright, and essayist. During his career, he faced censorship and political persecution due to his critical stance on the Soviet-dominated regime in Czechoslovakia. In 1975, he immigrated to France, where he settled and became a French citizen.

Milan Kundera's powerful and thought-provoking works have been translated into numerous languages, gaining him a global readership and immense acclaim. With his unique storytelling style and profound exploration of human experiences, Kundera continues to captivate readers and inspire aspiring writers around the world.

Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation.

Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation.

You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern ar

You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.

There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own

There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.

Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to

Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.

What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is

What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is easy enough: it means not lying, not hiding, and not dissimulating.

Truth Milan Kundera

Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two s

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).

Love Sleep Monogamy Polygamy

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidence

It is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.

Life Beauty Man Rights Coincidence

The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsch

The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?

Inspirational Mystery Thought Provoking

Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once yo

Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once you've brought breakfast in bed you'll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal.

FÃ¼r Sabina bedeutet Leben Sehen. Das Sehen wird durch zwei

FÃ¼r 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 fÃ¼r Extreme, in der Kunst wie in der Politik, ist eine verschleierte Todessehnsucht.

Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but

Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.

Love is our freedom.

Love is our freedom.

Love is a battle, said Marie-Claude, still smiling. And I pl

Love is a battle, said Marie-Claude, still smiling. And I plan to go on fighting. To the end.

Love Theend Plans

Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test,

Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.

Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's b

Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful.

Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

Love Violence Relationships Romance

The moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice c

The moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.

Without realizing it, the individual composes his life accor

Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.

Life Time Beauty Thetimes

So she stood naked in front of the young man and at this mom

So she stood naked in front of the young man and at this moment stopped playing the game.

Love Sex Relationships