Unbearable Lightness Of Being Quotes - Page 3

• Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said. Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly.

  Milan Kundera

  Mean, Use, Said

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

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• Tereza knew what happens during the moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.

  Milan Kundera

  Love Is, Men, Voice

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• The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?

  Milan Kundera

  Thinking, Ideas, Mad

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• Before we are forgotten, we will be turned into kitsch. Kitsch is the stopover between being and oblivion.

  Milan Kundera

  Kitsch, Forgotten, Oblivion

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• In Rome, I really wanted an Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday experience, but the Trevi Fountain was crowded, there was a McDonald's at the base of the Spanish Steps, and the ruins smelled like cat pee because of all the strays. The same thing happened in Prague, where I'd been yearning for some of the bohemianism of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. But no, there were no fabulous artists, no guys who looked remotely like a young Daniel Day-Lewis. I saw this one mysterious-looking guy reading Sartre in a cafe, but then his cell phone rang and he started talking in aloud Texan twang.

  Gayle Forman

  Reading, Holiday, Cat

  Gayle Forman (2013). “Just One Day”, p.33, Penguin

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• The very beginning of Genesis tells us that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse. There is no certainty that God actually did grant man dominion over other creatures. What seems more likely, in fact, is that man invented God to sanctify the dominion that he usurped for himself over the cow and the horse.

  Milan Kundera

  Horse, Men, Order

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1884.

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• The very beginning of Genesis tells us that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse.

  Milan Kundera

  Horse, Men, Order

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• Flirting is a promise of sexual intercourse without a guarantee.

  Milan Kundera

  Flirting, Promise, Guarantees

  "Nesnesitelna lehkost byti (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

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• But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science , instantly fades away.

  Milan Kundera

  Soul, Unity, Age

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• To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.

  Milan Kundera

  Women, Pride, Rebel

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

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• We all reject out of hand the idea that the love of our life may be something light or weightless; we presume our love is what must be, that without it our life would no longer be the same; we feel that Beethoven himself, gloomy and awe-inspiring, is playing the “Es muss sein!” to our own great love.

  Milan Kundera

  Love Is, Light, Hands

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• Yes, if you're looking for infinity, just close your eyes!

  Milan Kundera

  Eye, Infinity, Ifs

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• She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: We are at the last station. The happiness meant: We are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.

  Milan Kundera

  Sadness, Space, Together

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• But deep down she said to herself, Franz maybe strong, but his strength is directed outward; when it comes to the people he lives with, the people he's loves, he's weak. Franz's weakness is called goodness. Franz would never give Sabina orders. He would never command her, as Tomas had, to lay the mirror on the floor and walk back and forth on it naked. Not that he lacks sensuality; he simply lacks the strength to give orders. There are things that can be accomplished only by violence. Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

  Milan Kundera

  Strong, Love Is, Mirrors

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• Necessity knows no magic formulae-they are all left to chance. If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi's shoulders.

  Milan Kundera

  Love Is, Bird, Magic

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• Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.

  Milan Kundera

  Dog, Animal, Law

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

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• Cemeteries in Bohemia are like gardens. The graves are covered with grass and colourful flowers. Modest tombstones are lost in the greenery. When the sun goes down, the cemetery sparkles with tiny candles... no matter how brutal life becomes, peace always reigns in the cemetery. Even in wartime, even in Hitler's time, even in Stalin's time.

  Milan Kundera

  Tombstone, Flower, Garden

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• Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.

  Milan Kundera

  Life, Might, Adages

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• In Tereza's eyes, books were the emblems of a secret brotherhood

  Milan Kundera

  Book, Eye, Brotherhood

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• There are things that can be accomplished only by violence. Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

  Milan Kundera

  Love Is, Violence, Accomplished

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• Extremism means borders beyond which life ends, and a passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for death.

  Milan Kundera

  Art, Passion, Mean

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• Yes, it was too late, and Sabina knew she would leave Paris, move on, and on again, because were she to die here they would cover her up with a stone, and in the mind of a woman for whom no place is home the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable.

  Milan Kundera

  Moving, Home, Paris

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• Kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.

  Milan Kundera

  Kitsch, Existence, Humans

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera, translated by Michael Henry Heim, (Part Six: The Grand March), 1984.

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• Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.

  Milan Kundera

  Jealousy, Dog, Evil

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• From tender youth we are told by father and teacher that betrayal is the most heinous offence imaginable. But what is betrayal?…Betrayal means breaking ranks and breaking off into the unknown. Sabina knew of nothing more magnificent than going off into the unknown.

  Milan Kundera

  Teacher, Betrayal, Father

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