1,075 Quotes by Milan Kundera

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.

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.

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

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.

La memoria no guarda películas, guarda fotografías.

And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?

Ah, ladies and gentlemen, a man lives a sad life when he cannot take anything or anyone seriously.

Necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value.

I feel a frantic desire to free myself. To start all over again and in another way.