Farewell Waltz Quotes

“...people don't respect the morning. An alarm clock violently wakes them up, shatters their sleep like the blow of an ax, and they immediately surrender themselves to deadly haste. Can you tell me what kind of day can follow a beginning of such violence? What happens to people whose alarm clock daily gives them a small electric shock? Each day they become more used to violence and less used to pleasure.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born and have tasted life and declare it so good that is merits being duplicated.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“I am not in favor of imposing happiness on people. Everyone has a right to his bad wine, to his stupidity, and to his dirty fingernails.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Forgive me," he went on. "For a long time I have had the peculiar habit of not arriving but appearing.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Jealousy has the amazing power to illuminate a single person in an intense beam of light, keeping the multitude of others in total darkness.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“لو لم أر صورتي في المرآة, و طُلب منّي وصف هيئتي الخارجية انطلاقاً من معرفتي بنفسي, لرسمت صورة لا صلة لها بصورتي التي تُرى! فأنا لست مطلقاً ما أبدو عليه”
― milan kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Long ago one of the Cynic philosophers strutted through the streets of Athens in a torn mantle to make himself admired by everyone by displaying his contempt for convention. One day Socrates met him and said: 'I see your vanity through the hole in your mantle.' Your dirt too, sir, is vanity, and your vanity is dirty.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“In this country people don't respect the morning. An alarm clock violently wakes them up, shatters their sleep like the blow of an ax, and they immediately surrender themselves to deadly haste. Can you tell me what kind of day can follow a beginning of such violence? What happens to people whose alarm clock daily gives them a small electric shock? Each day they become more used to violence and less used to pleasure. Believe me, it is the mornings that determine a man's character.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“إذا توافرت لكل انسان إمكانية ان يقتل سرا و عن بعد ،فإن الإنسانية ستختفي خلال بضع دقائق”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“لا شيء كالغيرة يمتص كائنا انسانيا بكامله”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“Even painful memories are ties that bind.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Blonde hair and black hair are the two poles of human nature. Black hair signifies virility, courage, frankness, activity, whereas blonde hair symbolises femininity, tenderness, weakness, and passivity. Therefore a blonde is in fact doubly a woman. A princess can only be blonde. That's also why, to be as feminine as possible, women dye their hair yellow- but never black"

"I'm curious about how pigments exercise their influence over the human soul", said Bertlef doubtfully.
"it's not a matter of pigments. A blonde unconsciously adapts herself to her hair. Especially if the blonde is a brunette who dyes her hair yellow. She tries to be faithful to her hair colour and behaves like a fragile creature, a shallow doll, she demands tenderness and service, courtesy and alimony, she's incapable of doing anything for herself, all refinement on the outside and coarseness on the inside. If black hair became a universal fashion, life on this world would clearly be better. It would be the most useful social reform ever achieved.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“الحب يجعل المرأة المحبوبة أكثر جمالا”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“Jealousy is like a raging toothache. One cannot do anything when one is jealous, not even sit down. Once can only come and go. Back and forth.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“الرغبة في أن تكون محط إعجاب ، غير قابلة للإشباع”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“لا أفهم كيف يمكن للمرء أن يتحدث عن الحرية دون أن يُلقي بهذا العبء عن كاهله. مثل شجرة موجودة في موطنها الذي لا تستطيع أن تنمو فيه، تكون الشجرة في موطنها حيث تجد الأرض الخصبة.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“إن الشقراء إمرأة مضاعفة مرتين ذلك السبب أن الأميرة لابد أن تكون بشعر أشقر .
وذلك هو السبب في أن النساء - كي يكن أكثر أنوثة - يلون شعرهن بالأشقر لا بالأسود أبدا”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“Even a life of suffering has a mysterious value. Even a life on the threshold of death is a thing of splendor. Anyone who has not looked death in the face does not know this, but I know it ...”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Suicide is worse than murder. One can murder for vengeance or out of greed, but even greed is the expression of a perverted love of life. But to commit suicide is to throw one's life down contemptuously at God's feet”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“But I can cite ten other reasons for not being a father."
"First of all, I don't like motherhood," said Jakub, and he broke off pensively. "Our century has already unmasked all myths. Childhood has long ceased to be an age of innocence. Freud discovered infant sexuality and told us all about Oedipus. Only Jocasta remains untouchable; no one dares tear off her veil. Motherhood is the last and greatest taboo, the one that harbors the most grievous curse. There is no stronger bond than the one that shackles mother to child. This bond cripples the child's soul forever and prepares for the mother, when her son has grown up, the most cruel of all the griefs of love. I say that motherhood is a curse, and I refuse to contribute to it."
"Another reason I don't want to add to the number of mothers," said Jakub with some embarrassment, "is that I love the female body, and I am disgusted by the thought of my beloved's breast becoming a milk-bag."
"The doctor here will certainly confirm that physicians and nurses treat women hospitalized after an aborted pregnancy more harshly than those who have given birth, and show some contempt toward them even though they themselves will, at least once in their lives, need a similar operation. But for them it's a reflex stronger than any kind of thought, because the cult of procreation is an imperative of nature. That's why it's useless to look for the slightest rational argument in natalist propaganda. Do you perhaps think it's the voice of Jesus you're hearing in the natalist morality of the church? Do you think it's the voice of Marx you're hearing in the natalist propaganda of the Communist state? Impelled merely by the desire to perpetuate the species, mankind will end up smothering itself on its small planet. But the natalist propaganda mill grinds on, and the public is moved to tears by pictures of nursing mothers and infants making faces. It disgusts me. It chills me to think that, along with millions of other enthusiasts, I could be bending over a cradle with a silly smile."
"And of course I also have to ask myself what sort of world I'd be sending my child into. School soon takes him away to stuff his head with the falsehoods I've fought in vain against all my life. Should I see my son become a conformist fool? Or should I instill my own ideas into him and see him suffer because he'll be dragged into the same conflicts I was?"
"And of course I also have to think of myself. In this country children pay for their parents' disobedience, and parents for their children's disobedience. How many young people have been denied education because their parents fell into disgrace? And how many parents have chosen permanent cowardice for the sole purpose of preventing harm to their children? Anyone who wants to preserve at least some freedom here shouldn't have children," Jakub said, and fell into silence.
"The last reason carries so much weight that it counts for five," said Jakub. "Having a child is to show an absolute accord with mankind. If I have a child, it's as though I'm saying: I was born and have tasted life and declare it so good that it merits being duplicated."
"And you have not found life to be good?" asked Bertlef.
Jakub tried to be precise, and said cautiously: "All I know is that I could never say with complete conviction: Man is a wonderful being and I want to reproduce him.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“And Jakub realized that this child had done no harm, that he was not guilty of anything, and yet had been born with bad eyes and would have them forever. And he reflected further that what he had held against others was something given, something they came into the world with and carried with them like a heavy wire fence. He reflected that he had no privileged right to high-mindedness and that the highest degree of high-mindedness is to love people even though they are murderers.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“ثمّ علي بعد ذلك أن أتساءل عن طبيعة العالم الذي سيعيش فيه طفلي. فسرعان ما ستنتزعه المدرسة مني لتشحن رأسه بأكاذيب أفنيت حياتي في مقاومتها. أأترك ابني يصير أمام عينيّ غبياً خانعاً؟ أم ألقّنه أفكاري، وأنظر إليه يتعذب وهو يخوض الصراعات نفسها التي خضتها قبله؟”
― Milan Kundera , Farewell Waltz

“The only thing that makes me somewhat sceptical regarding human procreation is the unintelligent selection of parents. Some of the most unattractive individuals in the world feel they must multiply at all costs. They are apparently under the illusion that the burden of ugliness becomes lighter if it is shared with descendants.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“إن الاستمتاع بالطعام يحدث فقط في جو من المحبة”
― ميلان كونديرا, Farewell Waltz

“A dachshund came out of the bushes. Ruzena's father extended his pole toward him, but the dog alertly evaded it and ran over to the boy, who lifted him up and hugged him. Other old men rushed over to help Ruzena's father and tear the dachshund out of the boy's arms. The boy was crying, shouting, and grappling with them so that the old men had to twist his arms and put a hand over his mouth because his cries were attracting too much attention from the passersby, who were turning to look but not daring to intervene. [...] Jakub was leading the dog by the collar toward the hotel steps when one of the old men shouted: "Release that dog at once!"
And the other old man: "In the name of the law!"
Jakub pretended not to notice the old men and kept going, but behind him a pole slowly descended alongside his body and the wire loop wavered clumsily over the boxer's head.
Jakub grabbed the end of the pole and brusquely pushed it aside.
A third old man ran up and shouted: "Its an attack on law and order! I'm going to call the police!"
And the high-pitched voice of another old man complained: "He ran on the grass! He ran in the playground, where it's prohibited! He pissed in the kids' sandbox! Do you like dogs more than children?"
The boxer scampered around the room curiously, unaware that he had just escaped danger. Jakub stretched out on the daybed, wondering what to do with him. He liked the lively, good-natured dog. The insouciance with which, in a few minutes, he had made himself at home in a strange room and struck up a friendship with a strange man was nearly suspicious and seemed to verge on stupidity. After sniffing all corners of the room, he leaped up on the daybed and lay down beside Jakub. Jakub was startled, but he welcomed without reservation this sign of camaraderie. He put his hand on the dog's back and felt with delight the warmth of the animal's body. He had always liked dogs. They were familiar, affectionate, devoted, and at the same time entirely incomprehensible. We will never know what actually goes on in the heads and hearts of these confident, merry emissaries from incomprehensible nature.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“... he realized that the path of love, which Bertlef had suggested, was closed to him; it was the path of saints, not of ordinary men.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Svijetla kosa i tamna kosa, to su dva pola ljudskog karaktera. Tamna kosa znači muževnost, odvažnost, otvorenost i poduzetnost, dok je svijetla kosa simbol ženstvenosti, nježnosti, bespomoćnosti i pasivnosti. Plavuša je, prema tome, dvostruka žena. Princeza mora biti plavokosa. Zato žene, da bi bile ženstvenije, boje kosu u žuto, a nikad u crno.”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Consciousness of being loved separates a woman from the herd,”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz

“Don't forget that not only was Socrates ugly but also that many famous women lovers did not distinguish themselves at all by their physical perfection. Aesthetic racism is almost always a sign of inexperience. Those who have not made their way far enough into the world of amorous delights judge women only by what can be seen. But those who really know women understand that the eye reveals only a minute fraction of what a woman can offer us”
― Milan Kundera, Farewell Waltz