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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Book by Milan Kundera · 10 quotes · Milan Kundera, Love, Philosophy

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AllMilan KunderaLovePhilosophyحبفلسفة حياةاجتماعجنسكائن لا تحتمل خفتهعلم نفسميلان كونديراBookنيتشهفلسفةFriedrich NietzcheFriedrich NietzscheNeitzscheNovelPhilosophy Of LifePoliticalPsychological

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Quotes

“Era la vertigine. L'ottenebrante, irresistibile desiderio di cadere. La vertigine potremmo anche chiamarla ebbrezza della debolezza. Ci si rende conto della propria debolezza e invece di resisterle, ci si vuole abbandonare a essa. Ci si ubriaca della propria debolezza, si vuole essere ancor più deboli, si vuole cadere in mezzo alla strada, davanti a tutti, si vuole stare in basso, ancora più in basso.”

Milan KunderaDebolezzaVertigine
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“Yes, the Grand March was coming to an end, but was that any reason for Franz to betray it? Wasn't his own life coming to an end as well? Who was he to jeer at the exhibitionism of the people accompanying the courageous doctors to the border? What could they all do but put on a show? Had they any choice? Franz was right. I can't help thinking about the editor in Prague who organized the petition for the amnesty of political prisoners. He knew perfectly well that his petition would not help the prisoners. His true goal was not to free the prisoners; it was to show that people without fear still exist. That, too, was playacting. But he had no other possibility. His choice was not between playacting and action. His choice was between playacting and no action at all. There are situations in which people are condemned to playact. Their struggle with mute power (the mute power across the river, a police transmogrified into mute microphones in the wall) is the struggle of a theater company that has attacked an army.”

ProtestPlayacting
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“Hij lag te draaien naast de slapende Tereza en dacht terug aan wat ze ooit lang geleden tegen hem zei tussen onbeduidend gebabbel door. Ze praatten over zijn vriend Z. en ze bekende: 'Als ik jou niet had ontmoet, was ik vast en zeker op hem verliefd geworden.' Toen al brachten die woorden Tomas in een vreemde melancholie. Opeens besefte hij namelijk dat Terezea alleen maar door een toeval van hém hield en niet van zijn vriend Z. Dat er binnen het rijk der mogelijkheden naast haar verwerkelijkte liefde met Tomas een eindeloze hoeveelheid niet verwerkelijkte liefdes voor andere mannen bestaat. We vinden het allemaal ondenkbaar dat je grote liefde iets lichts zou kunnen zijn - iets dat niets weegt; we veronderstellen dat onze liefde iets is dat moest zijn; dat zonder haar ons leven niet ons leven zou zijn.”

LiefdeToevalVerliefd
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“De droom is niet alleen een mededeling (een eventueel gecodeerde mededeling), maar ook een esthetische activiteit, een spel van verbeelding dat op zichzelf waarde heeft. De droom is er het bewijs van dat verbeelding, het dromen van iets dat niet gebeurd is, tot de diepste behoeften van de mens behoort. Hierin ligt de wortel van het verraderlijke gevaar van de droom. Was de droom niet mooi, dan zou je hem snel kunnen vergeten.”

Milan KunderaDroomWaardeMededeling
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“The secret police have several functions, my dear . . . The first is the classical one. They keep an ear out for what people are saying and report it to their superiors. The second function is intimidatory. They want to make it seem as if they have us in their power; they want us to be afraid. . . . The third function consists of staging situations that will compromise us. Gone are the days when they tried to accuse us of plotting the downfall of the state. That would only increase our popularity. Now they slip hashish in our pockets or claim we've raped a twelve-year-old girl. They can always dig up sone girl to back them. . . . They need to trap people . . . to force them to collaborate and set other traps for other people, so that gradually they can turn the whole nation into a single organization of informers.”

OppressionSecret PoliceEntrapment
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“The dreams were eloquent, but they were also beautiful. That aspect seemed to escape Freud in his theory of dreams. 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. Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about the things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.”

Dreams
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