Milan Kundera is a renowned Czech-born author, best known for his novels exploring themes such as identity, memory, love, and politics. He was born on April 1, 1929, in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Kundera’s works are often characterized by their philosophical depth, intricate narrative structures, and dark humor.
Kundera’s writing often incorporates elements of metafiction and philosophical musings, and his works have been translated into numerous languages, gaining him an international following. He has also written essays, plays, and poetry throughout his career.
Milan Kundera Quotes
“The emotion of love gives all of us a misleading illusion of knowing the other.” ― Milan Kundera
“He took over anger to intimidate subordinates, and in time anger took over him.” ― Milan Kundera
“The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.” ― Milan Kundera
“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
“When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.” ― Milan Kundera
“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.” ― Milan Kundera
“But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.” ― Milan Kundera
“In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.” ― Milan Kundera
“A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.” ― Milan Kundera
“There is no perfection only life” ― Milan Kundera
“A single metaphor can give birth to love.” ― Milan Kundera
“I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.” ― Milan Kundera
“The only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other.” ― Milan Kundera
“loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.” ― Milan Kundera
“And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?” ― Milan Kundera
“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.” ― Milan Kundera
“You can’t measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.” ― Milan Kundera
“Unlike the puerile loyalty to a conviction, loyalty to a friend is a virtue – perhaps the only virtue, the last remaining one.” ― Milan Kundera
“When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.” ― Milan Kundera
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” ― Milan Kundera
“Humanity’s true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.” ― Milan Kundera
“Eroticism is like a dance: one always leads the other.” ― Milan Kundera
