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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.

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
Cannot
Conduct
Live
Experiments
Men
Test
Life
Tests
Follow
Compassion
Passion
Whether

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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 How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid?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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We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold.
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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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Fidelity gives a unity to lives that would otherwise splinter into thousands of split-second impressions.
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The source of anxiety lies in the future. If you can keep the future out of mind, you can forget your worries.
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The emotion of love gives all of us a misleading illusion of knowing the other.
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The moment Kafka attracts more attenetion than Joseph K., Kafka's posthumous death begins.
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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
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