Milan Kundera quotes - page 2

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. (Milan Kundera)
No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad. View quote
Milan Kundera
Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. View quote
Milan Kundera
People are going deaf because music is played louder and louder, but because they're going deaf, it has to be played louder still. View quote
Milan Kundera
Tereza knew what happens during 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. View quote
Milan Kundera
Attaching love to sex is one of the most bizarre ideas the Creator ever had. View quote
Milan Kundera
And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition. View quote
Milan Kundera
In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. View quote
Milan Kundera
Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together. View quote
Milan Kundera
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace. View quote
Milan Kundera
In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia. (Milan Kundera)
Yes, it's a well-known fact about you: you're like death, you take everything. View quote
Milan Kundera
Yes, if you're looking for infinity, just close your eyes! View quote
Milan Kundera
Pain doesn't listen to reason, it has its own reason, which is not reasonable. View quote
Milan Kundera
But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science, instantly fades away. View quote
Milan Kundera
Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end. View quote
Milan Kundera
Those who consider the Devil to be a partisan of Evil and angels to be warriors for Good accept the demagogy of the angels. Things are clearly more complicated. View quote
Milan Kundera
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. View quote
Milan Kundera
Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love. View quote
Milan Kundera
When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object. View quote
Milan Kundera
You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself. (Milan Kundera)
Dreaming is not merely an act of communication; it is also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination, a game that is a value in itself. View quote
Milan Kundera
When we ignore the body, we are more easily victimized by it. View quote
Milan Kundera
Flirting is a promise of sexual intercourse without a guarantee. View quote
Milan Kundera
There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless. View quote
Milan Kundera