Quote by Milan Kundera

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a

Summary

This quote emphasizes the role of novels in shaping our understanding of the world. It suggests that a novelist's purpose is to invite readers to view the world with curiosity and a sense of inquiry. By presenting the world as a question, novels encourage readers to critically examine their surroundings and challenge dominant beliefs. The quote also suggests that in a society entrenched in unwavering convictions, where everything is considered absolute, the novel, which encourages exploration and open-mindedness, becomes irrelevant and loses its power. Thus, the quote emphasizes the importance of novelistic wisdom and tolerance in a world that tends to privilege certainty over curiosity.

Topics

Attitude

By Milan Kundera

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march toward

The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life.

H. P. Blavatsky

Nature

In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossi

In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that any one else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force

Rules

All the critics who could not make their reputations by disc

All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.

Ernest Hemingway

Criticism

But even though she was attractive, there was something else

But even though she was attractive, there was something else about her that caught his eye. She was intelligent, he could sense that right away, and confident, too, as if she were able to move through life on her own terms. To him, these were the things that really mattered. Without them, beauty was nothing.

Nicholas Sparks

Beauty

There is a time for departure even when there's no certain p

There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.

Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Willia

With one hand he put a penny in the urn of poverty, and with

With one hand he put a penny in the urn of poverty, and with the other took a shilling out.

Land

I ransack public libraries and find them full of sunken trea

I ransack public libraries and find them full of sunken treasure.

Libraries

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind it takes me as muc

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.

UNICEF has made the most rewarding thing that I have ever do

UNICEF has made the most rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life.

Life

I'm approaching a period in my life though where I'd like to

I'm approaching a period in my life though where I'd like to be totally absorbed into music, doing concerts, writing something. Basically, that IS what I am doing.

Roscoe Mitchell

Life Music

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that thou

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Thomas Jefferson