The Unbearable Lightness of Being

by Milan Kundera

We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.

came to the conclusion that the love story of his life exemplified not “Es muss sein!” (It must be so), but rather “Es könnte auch anders sein” (It could just as well be otherwise).

Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short.