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List of Milan Kundera Quotes

Explore our hand-picked selection of 410 inspiring quotes by Milan Kundera.

About Milan Kundera

  • Born: April 1, 1929
  • Occupation: Writer
    • Forgive me," he went on. "for a long time i have had the peculiar habit of not arriving but appearing.
    Long Forgive Me Forgiving
    ...[p]eople who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all... (p.24)
    Joy Rooftops Saddest
    Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself? to what degree of distortion does a beloved person still remain a beloved person? for how long does a cherished face growing remote through illness, through madness, through hatred, through death still remain recognizable? where is the border beyond which a self ceases to be a self?
    Self Long Hatred
    But which was the real me? let me be perfectly honest: i was a man of many faces. (p.33)
    Real Men Faces
    Leroy interrupted chantal's fantasies: "freedom? as you live our your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. having that choice is what constitutes your freedom. you're free to melt your own individuality into the cauldron of the multitude either with a feeling of defeat or euphoria.
    Choices Feelings Individuality
    No one can get really drunk on a novel or a painting, but who can help getting drunk on reethoven's ninth, rartok's sonata for two pianos and percussion, or the reatles' white album?
    Music Two Piano
    In the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. it indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people. all the communists who were hanged at the time by other communists were awarded such abuse. unlike those who had their feet solidly on the ground, they were said to float in the air. so it was fair, in a way, that as punishment the ground was permanently pulled out from under their feet, that they remained suspended a little above the floor.
    Cutting Feet Air
    Remembering our past, carrying it around with us always, may be the necessary requirement for maintaining, as they say, the wholeness of the self. to ensure that the self doesn’t shrink, to see that it holds on to its volume, memories have to be watered like potted flowers, and the watering calls for regular contact with the witnesses of the past, that is to say, with friends. they are our mirror; our memory; we ask nothing of them but that they polish the mirror from time to time so we can look at ourselves in it.
    Memories Flower Past
    His overriding life necessity was not love, it was his profession…he had come to medicine not by coincidence or calculation but by a deep inner desire. insofar as it is possible to divide people into categories, the surest criterion is the deep-seated desires that orient them to one or another lifelong activity. every frenchman is different. but all the actors the world over are similar.
    Medicine People Desire
    Business only has two functions - innovation and marketing.
    Two Innovation Marketing
    Immortality no longer interests the weary old man at all.
    Men Immortality Old Man
    A worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails. a tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea.
    Ideas Hammers Tools
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