He looks at houses, chateaus, forests, and thinks about the countless generations who used to see those things and who are gone now; and he understands that everything he is seeing is oblivion; pure oblivion, the oblivion whose absolute state will soon be achieved, the moment he himself is gone. And again I think about the obvious idea (that astoundingly obvious idea) that everything that exists (nation, thought, music) can also not exist.
Milan Kundera
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES The idea that other perspectives exist may not be obvious to those who are in an emotional state of ... NABIL N. JAMAL The manager must not think I am ready for it. Perhaps with everything that has gone on he thought it... ASHLEY COLE The essence of faith … is the idea that that which man wishes actually is: he wishes to be immorta... LUDWIG FEUERBACH The fact is, that for the Huichol, and for all those who refuse, who are in flight, words and things... JEAN-MARIE G. LE CLéZIO The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he ha... JOHN JAY CHAPMAN The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a... ARUNDHATI ROY People come to music to seek oblivion: is that not also a form of deception? CLAUDE DEBUSSY That traitorous bastard. The idiot who thinks he's won himself a pretty girl. He has no idea who she... TAHEREH MAFI He exists and we have four people who identified him and I know who he is, where he is, what his pho... WILLIAM PEPPER He's going to be a natural. He is a natural. His demeanor and everything about him presents himself ... GREG BURNS Being present is being connected to All Things. S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS He is a perfect match for Milan. He sees the opportunity in Milan that we see, and we need someone w... BRETT MOYER The idea that he is haunted by what humans do I just loved that irony because we are all so afrai... MARKUS ZUSAK Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him. JORGE LUIS BORGES I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, ... BANKSY Mladic is within the reach of the government in Belgrade and we cannot wait anymore for him to surre... FLORENCE HARTMAN There will never be a good time, financially, to get married, unless you're Shaq or Ray Romano. But ... GREG BEHRENDT He wanted to toast mad idealism, forbidden desires, the dreams that drove one to criminal acts. He w... PAUL RUSSELL He didn't talk much about it. He just left it behind and just kind of wanted to get into oblivion wi... BONNIE FICK That person proves his worth who can make us want to listen when he is with us and think when he is ... GRIT There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest ma... C C COLTON There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man,... CHARLES CALEB COLTON For a moment, he looks back at me, and his farewell is in his smile. Then he turns to the stars. BETH REVIS I don't trust a person who opposes Marijuana because I know one thing about him that he doesn't know... MALCOLM NOTHLING He's for you and wants to help you be the person He created you to be. CRAIG GROESCHEL These things are lost to oblivion like so much about so many who are born and die without anyone tak... NICOLE KRAUSS A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upc... ABRAHAM LINCOLN But you know as well as I do that anger won’t solve anything.” “I beg to differ,”... M.A. GEORGE Today is about the now, the moment you live in, so do now what you want to do SOTONYE ANGA He loves you, do you see that? He loves you and he hates himself and he'll never, ever be good enoug... AMY EWING A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot co... JAMES ALLEN He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands
himself is more intelligent. H... LAO-TSE That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans ... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of slot... FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER His hitting is probably the most obvious thing that stands out about him. Jon just does everything r... GINO DIMARE We are alone, with no excuses. That is the idea I shall try to convey when I say that man is condemn... JEAN-PAUL SARTRE His self-esteem wasn't high, and he was trying to reflect too much on the things he didn't do well. ... BOB HURLEY I think he will. He usually bounces back pretty good. The thing I like about him is when he does mak... BRAD HOOVER He doesn't know this now, but in the years to come he will, again and again, test Harold's claims of... HANYA YANAGIHARA Sing then the core of dark and absolute oblivion where the soul at last is lost in utter peace. D.H. LAWRENCE After all this time, he had hope, and then hope was gone, and he hates himself for giving in to hope... JOHN CONNOLLY Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment comp... D.H. LAWRENCE [Regarding the idea of] race, ... no agreement seems to exist about what race means. Race seems to e... JACQUES BARZUN And therefore the idea of serving mankind, of the brotherhood and oneness of people, is fading more ... FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY I think the idea, from the beginning, was that Data was a machine that basically teaches himself eve... BRENT SPINER While he is doing that the rest of the guys are playing great too. I have gone with a new goalkeeper... ALLAN RICE As long as he retains externally the habits of a Christian he can still be made to think of himself ... C.S. LEWIS It must be admitted that science has its castes. The man whose chief apparatus is the differential e... GILBERT NEWTON LEWIS I can’t bear the thought of oblivion, Asriel,” she continued. “Sooner anything than that. I us... PHILIP PULLMAN [Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every mom... CLIVE BARKER Horror fiction shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every momen... CLIVE BARKER My soul is chaos, how can it be at all? There is everything in me: search and you will find out ... ... EMIL M. CIORAN But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet rec... THOMAS MERTON Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at lib... JEAN-PAUL SARTRE A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. It is grossly selfish to require of one'... OSCAR WILDE Nowhere and oblivion were completely different things/places to Richard Stein. For him, oblivio... CARLTON MELLICK III Who can love the man he fears. or by who he thinks he is himself
feared? UNKNOWN If anyone thinks he has faith and yet is indifferent towards this possession, is neither cold nor ho... SøREN KIERKEGAARD I think David is at peace with his own game now. He was too worried about himself and worried about ... BOB HURLEY The most important thing I learnt on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die... KURT VONNEGUT The great myth is that the bad ones don't last long. DAVID FOSTER WALLACE Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and wi... RAY BRADBURY I spoke to him on the eve of the verdict and he was very confident that he was going to win the case... AUGUSTO PALACIOS He told me he wants to be able to focus on the season ahead. I think that speaks a lot about the pla... GEORGE QUARLES I think sadly that Morse thinks that he can exist on his own and he only realises at the end that he... JOHN THAW The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, wit... H.L. MENCKEN Hopefully, when he wakes up the headache will be gone and he will be back to his normal self and go ... ALAN NOBLE He (Ralph) was always quiet and never the showy type who draws attention to himself. But that made p... BOB BARTON The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in greatest concern thinks certainly he kn... SHAFTESBURY I think you have to let go of this idea that you can be precious about everything, and let it be the... RYAN REYNOLDS I have gone through a lot of things, everything that you can imagine in life, but the best has been ... SHAKIRA Here is one fact 1 minute to finish the class, 1 day to die, one day behind that fact, one day in th... DEYTH BANGER He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation that he served so proudl... MARGARET THATCHER The inventor...looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improv... ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL I have no reason to believe anything other than that he has now told everything he thinks he can fro... LEIF SILBERSKY The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON Does there exist an Infinity outside ourselves? Is that infinity One, immanent and permanent, necess... VICTOR HUGO Stevie Wonder is just one of those guys that completely delivers everything that you want to be true... ADAM LEVINE The kind of man who thinks that helping with the dishes is beneath him will also think that helping ... ELEANOR ROOSEVELT He who thinks that he is finished is finished. How true. Those who think that they have arrived, hav... HENRI NOUWEN A man will succeed in anything about which he has real enthusiasm, in which he is genuinely interest... CHARLES M. SCHWAB The panorama-city is a 'theoretical' (that is, visual) simulacrum, in short a picture, whose conditi... MICHEL DE CERTEAU I think he had all of the sincerity and the honesty, clarity and humility to bring about everything ... BRUCE WOLFE The thing about Shakespeare is, whatever his politics were, the one thing he wasn't was an anarchist... DAVID HARE Because the Republicans are never going to turn on Trump so long as he still has his base, and he wi... NAOMI KLEIN Job was tested, and he proved himself. Because of that he was rewarded greatly, and I think the same... HARRY BROWN Even after the dehadhyas (the belief that 'I am the body') has gone, people will say, "I saw you eat... DADA BHAGWAN If the scholar feels that he must know everything about any topic, he is in trouble - and will not p... KENNETH L. PIKE This is the human paradox of altitude: that it both exalts the individual mind and erases it. Those ... ROBERT MACFARLANE The one thing about The Weeknd is that he's gone between the world of trap music and pop music a... BABYFACE The brevity of our lives breeds a kind of temporal parochialism—an ignorance of or an indifference... KATHRYN SCHULZ He did the best he could. I actually have to thank him for that, because he did compete hurt. He was... KEN ASHLOCK God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of al... SENECA Food Allergies Are Not Due to Food, Rather Are Due to the Constant Contamination of That Food That Y... THEHEALTHFOODGURU He's a serial child molester. Wherever he is now, there are some unwitting families that have no ide... DOUG BACHERT Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labor, that he takes snuff, that he is... ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SR. Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he i... ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Time is one of those things that you can never get back, and once it is gone, it's gone. I really wa... DEREK DUNCAN
More Milan Kundera
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MILAN KUNDERA Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is ... MILAN KUNDERA It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothes... MILAN KUNDERA For Sabina, living in truth, lying neither to ourselves nor to others, was possible only away from t... MILAN KUNDERA For Sabina, living in truth, lying neither to ourselves not others, was possible only away from the ... MILAN KUNDERA Horror is a shock, a time of utter blindness. Horror lacks every hint of beauty. All we can see is t... MILAN KUNDERA Totalitarianism is not only hell, but all the dream of paradise-- the age-old dream of a world where... MILAN KUNDERA It was vertigo. A heady, insuperable longing to fall. We might also call vertigo the intoxication of... MILAN KUNDERA True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has... MILAN KUNDERA We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our em... MILAN KUNDERA Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end. MILAN KUNDERA I find myself fascinating. MILAN KUNDERA This is the image from which he was born...... Characters are not born, like people, of woman; they ... MILAN KUNDERA People who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all. MILAN KUNDERA Having had occasion in the past to observe Communist statesmen, I saw with surprise that they were o... MILAN KUNDERA A man is responsible for his ignorance. MILAN KUNDERA Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said. Because love means renouncing strength,"... MILAN KUNDERA Does he love me? Does he love anyone more than me? Does he love me more than I love him? Perhaps all... MILAN KUNDERA The goals we pursue are always veiled. A girl who longs for marriage longs for something she knows n... 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MILAN KUNDERA In Spanish añoranza comes from the verb añorar (to feel nostalgia), which comes from the Catalan e... MILAN KUNDERA Remembering now all those farewells (fake farewells, worked-up farewells), Irena thinks: a person wh... MILAN KUNDERA تختفي الذكريات إذا لم تُستحضر مرة وأخرى في أحاديث الأص�... MILAN KUNDERA أتخيل انفعال كائنين يلتقيان بعد سنوات. قديما تعاشرا، ف�... MILAN KUNDERA Now time has a very different look; it is no longer the conquering present capturing the future; it ... MILAN KUNDERA When she is older she will see in these resemblances a regrettable uniformity among individuals (the... MILAN KUNDERA We will never cease our critique of those persons who distort the past, rewrite it, falsify it, who ... MILAN KUNDERA En griego, «regreso» se dice nostos. Algos significa “sufrimiento”. La nostalgia es, pues, el ... MILAN KUNDERA And there lies the horror: the past we remember is devoid of time. Impossible to reexperience a love... MILAN KUNDERA The more vast the amount of time we've left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us... MILAN KUNDERA Man can only be certain about the present moment. But is that quite true either? Can he really know ... MILAN KUNDERA To die; to decide to die; that's much easier for an adolescent than for an adult. What? Doesn't deat... MILAN KUNDERA The girl was grateful to the young man for every bit of flattery; she wanted to linger for a moment ... MILAN KUNDERA Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything ex... MILAN KUNDERA Flirting is a promise of sexual intercourse without a guarantee. MILAN KUNDERA The only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place ... MILAN KUNDERA But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave. MILAN KUNDERA Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and ... MILAN KUNDERA When we want to give expression to a dramatic situation in our lives, we tend to use metaphors of he... MILAN KUNDERA Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional ... MILAN KUNDERA Yes, it was too late, and Sabina knew she would leave Paris, move on, and on again, because were she... MILAN KUNDERA The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of f... MILAN KUNDERA In the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. It indicated someone w... MILAN KUNDERA A young woman forced to keep drunks supplied with beer and siblings with clean underwear -instead of... MILAN KUNDERA I had all kinds of answers ready for the commissions that called me in and asked me what had made me... MILAN KUNDERA Too much faith is the worst ally. When you believe in something literally, through your faith you'll... MILAN KUNDERA I know, brother, that you are a straightforward man, and that you pride yourself on it. But put one ... MILAN KUNDERA Certainty. Life's last and kindest gift. MILAN KUNDERA Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by t... MILAN KUNDERA Kitsch is the inability to admit that shit exists MILAN KUNDERA Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all. MILAN KUNDERA To laugh is to live profoundly. MILAN KUNDERA The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting MILAN KUNDERA The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty. ... MILAN KUNDERA