Milan Kundera

“Promatra njihova usta koja se otvaraju sva istodobno, usta koja melju, izbacuju riječi i bez prestanka praskaju u smijeh (zagonetka: kako se žene koje se međusobno ne slušaju mogu smijati onome što govore?).”

“If I had two lives, in one life I could invite her to stay at my place, and in the second life I could kick her out. Then I could compare and see which had been the best thing to do. But we only live once. Life's so light. Like an outline we can't ever fill in or correct... make any better. It's frightening".”

“Düşüncenin yaklaşıklığı ile gerçeğin kesinliği arasında düşlenemez olanın yarattığı küçük bir boşluk vardı ve onun bir türlü peşini bırakmayan da bu boşluktu.”

“Children, Never look Back!" and this meant that we must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory . for children have no past, and that is the whole secret of the magical innocence of their smiles.”

“Now we are longtime outcasts, flying through the emptiness of time in a straight line. Yet somewhere deep down a thin thread still ties us to that far-off misty Paradise, where Adam leans over a well and, unlike Narcissus, never even suspects that the pale yellow blotch appearing in it is he himself. The longing for Paradise is man's longing not to be man.”

“...she merely wished to find a way out of the maze. She knew that she had become a burden to him: she took things too seriously, turning everything into a tragedy, and failed to grasp the lightness and amusing insignificance of physical love. How she wished she could learn lightness! She yearned for someone to help her out of her anachronistic shell.”

“He who gives himself up like a prisoner of war must give up his weapons as well. And deprived in advance of defense against a possible blow, he cannot help wondering when the blow will fall.”

“In spite of their love, they had made each other's life a hell. The fact that they loved each other was merely proof that the fault lay not in themselves, in their behavior or inconstancy of feeling, but rather in their incompatibility: he was strong and she was weak.”

“If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.”

“Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing.”

“No hay nada más pesado que la compasión. Ni siquiera el propio dolor es tan pesado como el dolor sentido con alguien, por alguien, para alguien, multiplicado por la imaginación, prolongado en mil ecos”

“Está pronta demais a prometer sem mostrar de maneira suficientemente clara que sua promessa não a obriga a nada.”

“Na frente estava a mentira inteligível, e atrás a incompreensível verdade.”

“Além de eloquentes, esses sonhos eram belos. Esse é um aspecto que escapou a Freud na sua teoria dos sonhos. (...) O sonho é a prova que imaginar, sonhar com aquilo que não acontece, é uma das mais profundas necessidades do homem.”

“Não se pode, portanto, criticar o romance por seu fascínio pelos encontros misteriosos dos acasos (...) mas se pode, com razão, criticar o homem por ser cego a esses acasos, privando assim a vida da sua dimensão de beleza.”

“O acaso tem seus sortilégios, a necessidade não. Para que um amor seja inesquecível, é preciso que os acasos se encontrem nele desde o primeiro instante como os pássaros nos ombros de São Francisco de Assis.”

“Só o acaso pode nos parecer uma mensagem. Aquilo que acontece por necessidade, aquilo que é esperado e se repete cotidianamente é coisa muda apenas.”

“Nunca se pode saber o que se deve querer, pois só se tem uma vida e não se pode nem compará-la com as vidas anteriores nem corrigi-la nas vidas posteriores.”

“O amor não se manisfesta pelo desejo de fazer amor ( esse se aplica a uma multidão), mas pelo desejo do sono compartilhado ( esse desejo diz respeito a um só).”

“o gün akşamüstü son bir defa daha kırlarda dolaşmaya çıktığında yaşadığı tuhaf bir anı hatırladı: bir dere kıyısına gelmiş, çimenlere uzanmıştı. uzun süre orada öylece uzanmış, akarsuyun ta içinden geçerek bütün acıları ve bütün pislikleri; ben'ini sürükleyip götürdüğünü sanmıştı. tuhaf, unutulmaz bir an: ben'ini unutmuş, ben'ini kaybetmiş, kurtulmuştu; ve bu mutluluktu.bu anı içinde silik, uçucu ama çok önemli (belki de hepsinin en önemlisi olan) bir düşünceyi uyandırdı.hayatta dayanılmaz olan şey var olmak değil, kendin olmak.yaşamakta mutluluk diye birşey yok. yaşamak: acılı ben'ini dünya adına taşımak. ama olmak, olmak mutluluk. olmak, çeşmeye, evrenin içine ılık bir yağmur gibi indiği taş bir havuza dönüşmek.”

“What is unique about the "I" hides itself exactly in what is unimaginable about a person. All we are able to imagine is what makes everyone like everyone else, what people have in common. The individual "I" is what differs from the common stock, that is, what cannot be guessed at or calculated, what must be unveiled, uncovered, conquered.”

“It was gratitude that decided the issue, most likely. Human decisions are terribly simple.”

“Kitsch" is a German word born in the middle of the sentimental nineteenth century, and from German is entered all Western languages. Repeated use, however, has obliterated its original metaphysical meaning: kitsch is the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.”

“Men who pursue a multitude of women fit neatly into two categories. Some seek their own subjective and unchanging dream of a woman in all women. Others are prompted by a desire to possess the endless variety of the objective female in the world.”

“That is when I understood the magical meaning of the circle. If you go away from a row, you can still come back into it. A row is an open formation. But a circle closes up, and if you go away from it, there is no way back. It is not by chance that the planets move in circles and that a rock coming loose from one of them goes inexorably away, carried off by centrifugal force. Like a meteorite broken off from a planet, I left the circle and have not stopped falling. Some people are granted their death as they are whirling around, and others are smashed at the end of their fall. And these others (I am one of them) always retain a kind of faint yearning for that lost ring dance, because we are all inhabitants of a universe where everything turns in circles.”

“A novel is purposely a-philosophic, even anti-philosophic, fiercely independent of any system of preconceived ideas, it questions, it marvels, it doesn't judge, nor proclaims truths.”

“… kitschul este, in esenta, negatia absoluta a cacatului; atit in sensul propriu cit si in cel figurat al cuvintului; kitschul exclude din cimpul sau vizual tot ce-i esential inacceptabil in existenta umana.”

“Fiul lui Stalin si-a jertfit viata pe altarul cacatului. A muri pentru cacat nu inseamna o moarte pagubita de semnificatii. Nemtii care si-au sacrificat viata pentru a extinde cit mai departe spre rasarit granitele imperiului lor, rusii care au murit pentru a face ca puterea lor sa ajunga cit mai departe spre apus, da, acestia au murit intr-adevar jertfindu-se pe altarul unei prostii, iar moartea lor e lipsita de sens si de valoare generala. In schimb, moartea odraslei lui Stalin a fost singura metafora in toiul universalei imbecilitati a razboiului mondial.”

“What those years said of themselves was that they were the most joyous of years, and anyone who failed to rejoice was immediately suspected of lamenting the victory of the working class or |what was equally sinful| giving way individualistically to inner sorrows.”

“When the Comrades classified my conduct and my smile as intellectual (another notorious pejorative of the times), I actually came to believe them because I couldn´t imagine (I wasn´t bold enough to imagine it) that anyone else might be wrong, that the Revolution itself, the spirit of the times, might be wrong and I, an individual, might be right. I began to keep tabs on my smiles, and soon I felt a tiny crack opening up between the person I had been and the person I should be (according to the spirit of the times) and tried to be.”

“Sometimes (more in sport than from real concern) I defended myself against the charge of individualism and demanded from the others proof that I was an individualist. For want of concrete evidence they would say: “ It´s the way you behave.” “How do I behave?” “You have a strange kind of smile”. “And If I do? That´s how I express my joy.” “No, your smile is though you were thinking to yourself.”

“Si las personas sólo fueran responsables de lo que hacen conscientemente, los idiotas estarían de antemano libres de cualquier culpa”

“If a mother was Sacrifice personified, then a daughter was Guilt, with no possibility of redress.”

“Then came time for her to marry. She had nine suitors. They all knelt round her in a circle. Standing in the middle like a princess, she did not know which one to choose: one was the handsomest, another the wittiest, the third was the richest, the fourth was most athletic, the fifth from the best family, the sixth recited verse, the seventh traveled widely, the eighth played the violin, and the ninth was the most manly. But they all knelt in the same way, they all had the same calluses on their knees.”

“En griego, «regreso» se dice nostos. Algos significa “sufrimiento”. La nostalgia es, pues, el sufrimiento causado por el deseo incumplido de regresar. La mayoría de los europeos puede emplear para esta noción fundamental una palabra de origen griego (nostalgia) y, además, otras palabras con raíces en la lengua nacional: en español decimos “añoranza”; en portugués, saudade. En cada lengua estas palabras poseen un matiz semántico distinto. Con frecuencia tan sólo significan la tristeza causada por la imposibilidad de regresar a la propia tierra. Morriña del terruño. Morriña del hogar. En inglés sería homesickness, o en alemán Heimweh, o en holandés heimwee. Pero es una reducción espacial de esa gran noción. El islandés, una de las lenguas europeas más antiguas, distingue claramente dos términos: söknudur: nostalgia en su sentido general; y heimfra: morriña del terruño. Los checos, al lado de la palabra “nostalgia” tomada del griego, tienen para la misma noción su propio sustantivo: stesk, y su propio verbo; una de las frases de amor checas más conmovedoras es styska se mi po tobe: “te añoro; ya no puedo soportar el dolor de tu ausencia”. En español, “añoranza” proviene del verbo “añorar”, que proviene a su vez del catalán enyorar, derivado del verbo latino ignorare (ignorar, no saber de algo). A la luz de esta etimología, la nostalgia se nos revela como el dolor de la ignorancia. Estás lejos, y no sé qué es de ti. Mi país queda lejos, y no sé qué ocurre en él. Algunas lenguas tienen alguna dificultad con la añoranza: los franceses sólo pueden expresarla mediante la palabra de origen griego (nostalgie) y no tienen verbo; pueden decir: je m?ennuie de toi (equivalente a «te echo de menos» o “en falta”), pero esta expresión es endeble, fría, en todo caso demasiado leve para un sentimiento tan grave. Los alemanes emplean pocas veces la palabra “nostalgia” en su forma griega y prefieren decir Sehnsucht: deseo de lo que está ausente; pero Sehnsucht puede aludir tanto a lo que fue como a lo que nunca ha sido (una nueva aventura), por lo que no implica necesariamente la idea de un nostos; para incluir en la Sehnsucht la obsesión del regreso, habría que añadir un complemento: Senhsucht nach der Vergangenheit, nach der verlorenen Kindheit, o nach der ersten Liebe (deseo del pasado, de la infancia perdida o del primer amor).”

“Extremele marcheaza frontierele in spatele carora viata inceteaza, iar pasiunea extremismului, in arta si in politica, este dorinta camuflata de a muri.”

“Adesea se gindea la discursul rostit de Dubcek la posturile de radio dupa intoarcerea sa de la Moscova. Nu-si mai amintea nimic din spuselel lui, dar ii mai rasuna si acum in ureche vocea aceea tremuratoare. Se gindea la soarta lui : niste soldati straini l-au arestat in propria sa tara, pe el, seful unui stat suveran, l-au ridicat, l-au tinut sechestrat timp de patru zile, undeva in muntii Ucrainei, l-au facut sa inteleaga ca va fi impuscat, asa cum fusese impuscat, cu doisprezece ani in urma, precursorul sau maghiar Imre Nagy, apoi l-au transferat la Moscova, i s-a poruncit sa se imbaieze, sa se barbiereasca, sa se imbrace, sa-si puna cravata, l-au anuntat ca nu mai era destinat plutonului de executie, ca trebuia sa se considere in continuare seful statului, l-au asezat la o masa in fata cu Brejnev si l-au constrins sa negocieze.”

“Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. Their situation is a dangerous as the situation in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark.”

“The proliferation of mass graphomania among politicians, cab drivers, women on the delivery table, mistresses, murderers, criminals, prostitutes, police chiefs, doctors, and patients proves to me that every individual without exception bears a potential writer within himself and that all mankind has every right to rush out into the streets with a cry of "We are all writers!"The reason is that everyone has trouble accepting the fact that he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed in an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it's too late.Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.”

“La vraie bonté de l'homme ne peut se manifester en toute liberté et en toute pureté qu'à l'égard de ceux qui ne représentent aucune force. Le véritable test moral de l'humanité (le plus radical, qui se situe à un niveau tel qu'il s'échappe à notre regard), ce sont ses relations avec ceux qui sont à sa merci; les animaux. Et c'est ici que s'est produite la plus grande déroute de l'homme, débâcle fondamentale dont toutes les autres découlent.”

“« Aceasta impacare cu Hitler tradeaza profunda perversiune morala, inerenta unei lumi intemeiate esential pe inexistenta intoarcerii, caci in aceasta lume totul e dinainte iertat si, in consecinta, totul e ingaduit cu cinism, » (p. 8)”

“That's how it is: even in the throes of death, man is always on stage. And even 'the plainest' of them, the least exhibitionist, because it's not always the man himself who climbs on stage. If he doesn't do it, someone will put him there. That is his fate as a man.”

“When his wife was at his side, she was also in front of him, marking out the horizon of his life. Now the horizon is empty: the view has changed.”

“Isn't that exactly the definition of biography? An artificial logic imposed on an 'incoherent succession of images'?”

“(God) being the old man invented in order to, and with whom to, hold long conversations.”

“The novel was born with the Modern Era, which made man, to quote Heidegger, the "only real subject," the ground for everything. It is largely through the novel that man as an individual was established on the European scene. Away from the novel, in our real lives, we know very little about our parents as they were before our birth; we have only fragmentary knowledge of the people close to us: we see them come and go and scarcely have they vanished than their place is taken over by others: they form a long line of replaceable beings. Only the novel separates out an individual, trains a light on his biography, his ideas, his feelings, makes him irreplaceable: makes him the center of everything.”

“Such are the Splendors and Miseries of memory: it is proud of its ability to keep truthful track of the logical sequence of past events; but when it comes to how we experienced them at the time, memory feels no obligation to truth.”

“Fortunately, I read (the books) without knowing what I was in for, and the best thing that can ever happen to a reader happened to me: I loved something that, by conviction (or by my nature) I should not have loved”

“Art must always stand guard against stirring emotions that lie outside the aesthetic: sexual arousal, terror, disgust, shock.”

“Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.”