Quotes from Life is Elsewhere

“Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“He was no longer quite sure whether anything he had ever thought or felt was truly his own property, or whether his thoughts were merely a common part of the world’s store of ideas which had always existed ready-made and which people only borrowed, like books from a library.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“قال في نفسه إنه ليس من الصعب التعلّق بشخص متألّق، كامل و أنيق : فهذا النوع من الحب ليس سوى رد فعل تافه يولده فينا الجمال آليًا و صدفة.
أما الحب الصادق، فيجنح إلى خلق المحبوب انطلاقًا من كائن ناقص، كائن ناقص بمقدار ما هو إنساني.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“You think that just because it's already happened, the past is finished and unchangeable? Oh no, the past is cloaked in multicolored taffeta and every time we look at it we see a different hue.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Art arises from sources other than logic." (p.32)”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Is a novel anything but a trap set for a hero?”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Revolution in Love’. Can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you want free love as against bourgeois marriage, or monogamy as against bourgeois promiscuity?”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Aren't we living in a world where heedless men only desire decapitated women?”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“For the body is temporal and thought is eternal and the shimmering essence of flame is an image of thought.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“أجل، كان مستعدًا لتذويب كل عيوبها فى محلول حبّه، لكن بشرط واحد هو : أن تتمدد هى نفسها باستسلام فى هذا المحلول، وألا تفكر قط فى مغادرة حوض الحب هذا، وأن تظل دائمًا مغمورة تمامًا تحت سطح أفكاره وكلامه. أن تظل مغمورة فى عالمه، وألا ترتاد أى بقعة من جسدها وروحها أىّ عالم آخـر !”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“هل الرواية شيء آخر سوى فخ منصوب للبطل؟”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“وقد انتهـى به المطـاف إلى الاطمئنان إلى أن فكرة الحب الذى يحل فجأة كالصاعقة يحرر المرأة دفعـة واحدة من كل كابح وحشمة، وبما أنّها عفيفة وبريئة، فأنها تسارع إلى منح نفسها للعشيق مثلما تفعل أى فتاة داعـرة، بل أكثر من ذلك، فالحب حرّر بداخلهـا ينبـوع إلهام على درجة من القوة بحيث أن سلوكهـا العفـوى يمكن أن يشبه سلـوك امرأة ذات باع طويل فى الفجــور ..
فعبقـرية الحـب قد تعوّض الخبرة فى رمشة عيـن ..”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“He was repelled by the pettiness that reduced life to mere existence and that turned men into half-men. He wanted to lay his life on a balance, the other side of which was weighted with death. He wanted to make his every action, every day, yes, every hour and minute worthy of being measured against the ultimate, which is death.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“تقترن الثورة بالشباب. فبماذا يمكن أن تَعِد الثورة الراشدين؟ قد تَِعد بعضهم بزوال الحظوة، بينما تعد آخرين بالامتيازات، لكنها ليست امتيازات ذات بال، لأنّها لا تتعلّق إلا بالجانب الأكثر بؤساً من الحياة. فامتيازاتها تكون مقرونة بالشّك والعمل المضني وانقلاب عادات الحياة.
أما الشباب فأوفر حظاً :فهو غير مثقل بالأخطاء، والثورة تستطيع أن تشمله بحمايتها تماماً. ثم إن الشّك الذي يطبع فترات الثورة يشكّل بالنسبة إلى الشباب، مزيّة: لأن عالم الآباء هو الذي يتسرب إليه الشك: آه! ما أروع أن تَلِج عالم الراشدين حينما تنهار معاقلهم!”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“You are beautiful," he said, "But I will have to leave you.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Tenderness is the attempt to create a tiny artificial space in which it is mutually agreed that each will treat the other like a child.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“...he took a look at the blond girl's eyes and knew that he must not take part in the rigged game in which the ephemeral passes for the eternal and the small for the big, that he must not take part in the rigged game called love.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“أعتقد أن الحب ليس فيه منزلة بين المنزلتين، فإذا ما أحببنا، وجب أن نجود بكل ما نملك.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“فالإنسان المطرود من سياج الطفولة الواقى يرغب فى اقتحام العالم، لكن خوفه يدفعه إلى صنع عالم اصطناعى تعويضى بواسطة أشعاره، فيحيط نفسه بتلك الأشعار كما تحيط الكواكب بالشمس، ويحتل مركز عالم صغير لا شئ فيه غريبًا، يحس داخله بالألفة على غرار الطفل فى بطن أمه، لأن كل شئ هنالك مقدود من مادة روحه.
وهو هناك يستطيع أن يفعل كل ما يتعذّر عليه فعله فى الخارج. هناك يستطيع أن يسير بين حشود العمال من أجل القيام بالثورة، ويجلد عشيقاته الصغيرات، لأن هذه الحشود، وهذه العشيقات لم تُقدد من المادة العدائية لعالم غريب، بل من مادة أحلامه الخاصة.
فهى إذًا ليست غير ذاته، وهى لا تقطع من وحدة العالم الذى أنشأه لنفسه.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“إن الحب الحقيقي أصم تماماً نحو ما يمكن أن يقوله بقية العالم ، وهذا تحديداً هو ما يميزه”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Is not parody the eternal lot of man?”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“لم يكن الشعور بالذنب هو دافعه الوحيد للمخاطرة، بل كره المذلة التي تجعل من الحياة نصف حياة، ومن الإنسان نصف إنسان. أراد أن يضع حياته في كفة الميزان، والموت في الكفة الأخرى. كان يود أن يقيس كل فعل من أفعاله، بل كل يوم من أيامه، وكل ساعة، وكل ثانية، بالمعيار الأسمى الذي هو الموت.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“هل تعتقدون أن الماضي، لأنه قد انصرم، ينتهي ويبقى ثابتاً؟
كلا، فرداء الماضي مصنوعٌ من
.نسيجٍ حريري متلوّن، و في كل مرة نلتفت إليه، نراه بألوانٍ أخرى”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“تضرب حكاية الشخصين الموشكين على أن يصيرا عشيقين بجذورها في القدم ،بحيث نستطيع نسيان العهد الذي تجري فيه .. ما ألطف أن يحكي المرء هذا النوع من المغامرات ! و ما ألذّ أن ينساها ، هي التي جفّفت نسغ حيواتنا القصيرة لكي نسخرها لهذه الأعمال التافهة، فما أجمل أن ننسي التاريخ !”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“Yes, it's crazy.Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“كانا يلتهمان هذا البؤس المشترك ويشربانه معاً حتى الثمالة”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“He took a look at the blond girl’s eyes and knew that he must not take part in the rigged game in which the ephemeral passes for the eternal and the small for the big, that he must not take part in the rigged game called love.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

“The engineer’s ready capitulation, however, did not hide from the poet’s mother the sad realization that the adventure into which she had plunged so impulsively--and which had seemed so intoxicatingly beautiful--had no turned out to be the great, mutually fulfilling love she was convinced she had a full right to expect. Her father was the owner of two prosperous Prague pharmacies, and her morality was based on strict give-and-take. For her part, she had invested everything in love (she had even been willing to sacrifice her parents and their peaceful existence); in turn, she had expected her partner to invest an equal amount of capital of feelings in the common account. To redress the imbalance, she gradually withdrew her emotional deposit and after the wedding presented a proud, severe face to her husband.”
― Milan Kundera, quote from Life is Elsewhere

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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