Quote

Such are the Splendors and Miseries of memory: it is proud of its ability to keep truthful track of the logical sequence of past events but when it comes to how we experienced them at the time, memory feels no obligation to truth.

Milan Kundera

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Milan Kundera
Age: 95
Born: 1929
Born: April 1
Author
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Brünn
Time
Proud
Truthful
Memories
Logical
Ability
Experienced
Comes
Obligation
Keep
Misery
Splendors
Past
Track
Miseries
Truth
Memory
Splendor
Feels
Events
Sequence

More quotes by Milan Kundera

Image
A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.
Milan Kundera
Image
For the body is temporal and thought is eternal and the shimmering essence of flame is an image of thought.
Milan Kundera
Image
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.
Milan Kundera
Image
I understood that there was no escaping the memories, that I was surround by them. (p.30)
Milan Kundera
Image
It was futile to attack with reason the stout wall of irrational feelings that, as is known, is the stuff of which the female mind is made.
Milan Kundera
Image
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
Image
The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.
Milan Kundera
Image
The novelist's ambition is not to do something better than his predecessors but to see what they did not see, say what they did not say.
Milan Kundera
Image
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.
Milan Kundera
Image
Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful.
Milan Kundera
Image
Business only has two functions - innovation and marketing.
Milan Kundera
Image
To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.
Milan Kundera
Image
To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth, it means to discover a truth.
Milan Kundera
Image
Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.
Milan Kundera
Image
But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.
Milan Kundera
Image
I have a strong will to love you for eternity.
Milan Kundera
Image
...[P]eople who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all... (p.24)
Milan Kundera
Image
Even in the game there lurks a lack of freedom even in a game is a trap for the players.
Milan Kundera
Image
And I ran after that voice through the streets so as not to lose sight of the splendid wreath of bodies gliding over the city, and I realized with anguish in my heart that they were flying like birds and I was falling like a stone, that they had wings and I would never have any.
Milan Kundera
Image
Fortunately women have the miraculous ability to change the meaning of their actions after the event.
Milan Kundera