Quotessence
Home / Authors / Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllUnbearable Lightness Of BeingUnbearable LightnessMenNovelPeopleLightnessIfsUnbearableWorldLoveHumansMeanMemoriesMilan KunderaWantWayKnowsLove IsDoeLying

Famous Milan Kundera Quotes

“There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, "sketch" is not quite a word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture.”

IfsLifeFirstsMeanLife IsActorsDecisionOur LivesColdBasesComparisonWarningTestingUnbearableRehearsalOutlinesLightnessUnbearable Lightness Of BeingUnbearable LightnessGroundworkUnbearable Things
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image

“The day after his father left, Franz and his mother went into town together, and as they left home Franz noticed that her shoes did not match. He was in a quandary: he wanted to point out the mistake, but was afraid he would hurt her. So, during the two hours they spent walking through the city together he kept his eyes focused on her feet. It was then he had his first inkling of what it means to suffer.”

FirstsMeanTwoHomeEyeWantedTogetherMotherSufferingFatherLeftHoursHurtCitiesMistakeFeetWalkingTownsShoesFocusedHis Eyes
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image

“While people are fairly young and the musical composition of their lives is still in its opening bars, they can go about writing it together and sharing motifs (the way Tomas and Sabina exchanged the motif of the bowler hat), but if they meet when they are older, like Franz and Sabina, their musical compositions are more or less complete, and every motif, every object, every word means something different to each of them.”

PeopleIfsWayWritingMeanStillsDifferentTogetherYoungLife IsObjectsMusicalBarsOpeningHatsCompositionMotifsBowlersMusical CompositionBowler Hats
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image

“The word change, so dear to our Europe, has been given a new meaning: it no longer means a new stage of coherent development (as it was understood by Vico, Hegel or Marx), but a shift from one side to another, from front to back, from the back to the left, from the left to the front (as understood by designers dreaming up the fashion for the next season).”

MeanHas BeensDreamNextLeftGivenUnderstandingSidesChangeStageFashionFrontsDevelopmentUnderstoodEuropeSeasonsDearDesignerHegel
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image

“Woman is the future of man. That means that the world which was once formed in man's image will now be transformed to the image of woman. The more technical and mechanical, cold and metallic it becomes, the more it will need the kind of warmth that only the woman can give it. If we want to save the world, we must adapt to the woman, let ourselves be led by the woman, let ourselves be penetrated by the Ewigweiblich, the eternally feminine!”

IfsMenWorldWantNeedsGivingKindMeanWarColdFeminineWarmthTransformedSave The WorldMetallic
Author:Milan Kundera
Create image