Quote

Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.

Milan Kundera

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Milan Kundera
Age: 95
Born: 1929
Born: April 1
Author
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Brünn
Firsts
Memory
Metaphorical
First
Memories
Lightness
Love
Dangerous
Metaphors
Word
Enters
Point
Unbearable
Woman
Poetic
Language
Metaphor
Dream
Begins
Metaphoric

More quotes by Milan Kundera

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I am not worthy of my suffering. A great sentence. It suggests not only that suffering is the basis of the self, its sole indubitable ontological proof, but also that it is the one feeling most worthy of respect the value of all values.
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The senator had only one argument in his favour: his feeling. When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object. In the realm of kitsch, the dictatorship of the heart reigns supreme.
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When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
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How goodness heightens beauty!
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The moment Kafka attracts more attenetion than Joseph K., Kafka's posthumous death begins.
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We go through the present blindfolded... Only later, when the blindfold is removed and we examine the past, do we realize what we've been through and understand what it means.
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Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.
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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.
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We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold.
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The body was a cage, and inside that cage was something which looked, listened, feared, thought and marveled that something, that remainder left over after the body had been accounted for, was the soul.
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In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.
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But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?
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Only after a while did it occur to me (in spite of the chilly silence which surrounded me) that my story was not of the tragic sort, but rather of the comic variety. At any rate that afforded me some comfort.
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To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.
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Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.
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But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not.
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The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted.
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Through the air floated only important words, and Flajsman said to himself that love has but one true measure, and that is death. At the end of true love is death, and only the love that ends in death is love.
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People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.
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In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty.
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