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Quote by Milan Kundera

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Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera is a renowned Czech-French writer known for his profound psychological insights and unique narrative techniques. His works often explore themes of personal freedom, love, morality, and existentialism, with notable titles including 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' and 'The Joke'. more

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“Persahabatanku dengan kata-kata tidak jauh beda dari persahabatan sang pelukis dengan lukisannya, sang pelari dengan kakinya, sang ilmuwan dengan bukunya, sang penerjemah dengan kamusnya, sang dokter dengan alat-alat kedokterannya, sang akuntan dengan kalkulatornya, sang pemimpi dengan impiannya, aktivis dengan pemikiran serta orasinya, sang Edison dengan lampunya, sang pemimpin dengan kebijaksanaannya, sang penyusun skripsi dengan jurnal serta analisisnya, sang koki dengan masakannya, sang putri tidur dengan gulingnya.”

“What is truly real is Consciousness, because it is One, always was and always will be. The universes and you come and go. There are Many, so they must be temporary illusions. Only One exists in the eternity of the Now and, therefore, only One is real, by Gardener.”

“The other day as I was stepping out of Star Grocery on Claremont Avenue with some pork ribs under my arm, the Berkeley sky cloudless, a smell of jasmine in the air, a car driving by with its window rolled down, trailing a sweet ache of the Allman Brothers' "Melissa," it struck me that in order to have reached only the midpoint of my life I will need to live to be 92. That's pretty old. If you live to be ninety-two, you've done well for yourself. I'd like to be optimistic, and I try to take care of my health, but none of my grandparents even made it past 76, three killed by cancer, one by Parkinson's disease. If I live no longer than any of them did, I have at most thirty years left, which puts me around sixty percent of the way through my time. I am comfortable with the idea of mortality, or at least I always have been, up until now. I never felt the need to believe in heaven or an afterlife. It has been decades since I stopped believing-a belief that was never more than fitful and self-serving to begin with-in the possibility of reincarnation of the soul. I'm not totally certain where I stand on the whole "soul" question. Though I certainly feel as if I possess one, I'm inclined to disbelieve in its existence. I can live with that contradiction, as with the knowledge that my time is finite, and growing shorter by the day. It's just that lately, for the first time, that shortening has become perceptible. I can feel each tiny skyward lurch of the balloon as another bag of sand goes over the side of my basket.”