Milan Kundera citáty

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„Osoba, ktorá túži opustiť miesto, kde žije, je nešťastná osoba.“

„Vzťah, ktorý urobí oboch partnerov šťastnými, je vzťah, v ktorom sentimentálnosť nemá miesto a žiadny z partnerov si nerobí nároky na život a slobodu toho druhého.“

„Nemôžeš merať vzájomnú náklonnosť dvoch ľudských bytostí počtom slov, ktoré si vymenia.“

„Keď srdce prehovorí, myseľ považuje za neslušné namietať. V kráľovstve gýču vládne diktatúra srdca.“

„Psy sú naším spojením s rajom. Nepoznajú zlo, žiarlivosť ani nespokojnosť. Sedieť so psom na svahu kopca počas nádherného popoludnia znamená vrátiť sa do raja, kde ničnerobenie nebolo nudné - znamenalo pokoj.“

„Človek oddaný svojej viere je pokorný a má pokorne prijímať aj nespravodlivý trest.“

„Človek prechádza prítomnosťou so zaviazanými očami. Smie iba tušiť a hádať, čo vlastne žije. Až neskôr mu odviažu šatku z očí a on, pohliadnuc na minulosť, zistí čo žil a aký to malo zmysel.“

„Muži obdivujú ženy, ktoré hovoria ako knihy, ale berú si ženy, ktoré varia ako z kuchárskej knihy.“

„Boj človeka s mocou je bojom spomienok so zabudnutím.“

„Moc je najslabšia, keď je úplne neprimeraná. Keď hlupák vládne múdremu, slabý silnému, ohavná krásnemu.“

„Žiadne počínanie nie je samo o sebe dobré ani zlé. Až jeho miesto v poriadku ho urobí dobrým či zlým.“

„Byť básnikom, to znamená ísť vždy až na koniec.“

„Muž smie chcieť od ženy čokoľvek, ale ak nechce jednať ako surovec, musí jej umožniť, aby konala v súlade so svojimi najhlbšími sebaklamami.“

„Skepsa nemení svet na ničotu. Skepsa premieňa svet na otázky.“

„Štyridsiatnik nielenže nevyžaduje vernosť, ale cíti sa bezpečnejšie, ak majú jeho priateľky vážne známosti.“

„Ale keď silní boli príliš slabí na to, aby ublížili slabým, slabí museli byť dosť silní, na to aby odišli.“

„Grécke slovo pre „návrat“ je nostos. Algos znamená „utrpenie“. Nostalgia je teda utrpenie spôsobené neutíchajúcou túžbou po návrate.“

„Človek nikdy nemôže vedieť, čo má chcieť, pretože žije len jeden život a nemôže ho nijako porovnávať so svojimi predchádzajúcimi životmi, ani ho zdokonaliť v budúcom živote.“

„Z jedinej metafory môže vzniknúť láska.“

„Oko... bod, kde sa sústreďuje identita človeka.“

„Neexistuje dokonalosť, iba život.“

„Rada sa prechádzala po ulici s knihou pod pažou. Mala pre ňu rovnaký význam ako elegantná palica pre džentlmena pred sto rokmi. Odlišovala ju od ostatných.“

„Chcem, aby si bol slabý. Taký slabý ako ja.“

„Rada sa prechádzala po ulici s knihou v ruke. Odlišovalo ju to od ostatných.“

“Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity.”

“A man who loses his privacy loses everything. And a man who gives it up of his own free will is a monster.”

“Living, there is no happiness in that. Living: carrying one’s painful self through the world.
But being, being is happiness. Being: Becoming a fountain, a fountain on which the universe falls like warm rain.”

“To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead.”

“Looking out over the courtyard at the dirty walls, he realized he had no idea whether it was hysteria or love.”

“We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotions - love, antipathy, charity, or malice - and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.”

“Hate traps us by binding us too tightly to our adversary.”

“The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia.”

“The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become”

“The history of music is mortal, but the idiocy of the guitar is eternal.”

“Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup.”

“She is sadder and sadder, and for a man there is no balm more soothing than the sadness he has caused a woman.”

“All great novels, all true novels, are bisexual.”

“She knew that there were all kinds of ways to make a conquest and that one of the surest roads to a woman's genitals was through her sadness.”

“The more vast the amount of time we've left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us to return to it.”

“We can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it.”

“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).”

“Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.”

“Pain doesn't listen to reason, it has its own reason, which is not reasonable.”

“Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)”

“People derived too much pleasure from seeing their fellow man morally humiliated to spoil that pleasure by hearing out an explanation.”

“You think that just because it's already happened, the past is finished and unchangeable? Oh no, the past is cloaked in multicolored taffeta and every time we look at it we see a different hue.”

“The river flowed from century to century, and human affairs play themselves out on its banks. Play themselves out to be forgotten the next day, while the river flows on.”

“Optimism is the opium of the people.”

“I think, therefore I am' is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches.”

“The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”

“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.”

“Unlike the puerile loyalty to a conviction, loyalty to a friend is a virtue - perhaps the only virtue, the last remaining one.”

“I invent stories, confront one with another, and by this means I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.”