Encouraged by her parents’ applause, the girl went on: “Do you think we take off our tops to give you pleasure? We do it for ourselves, because we like it, because it feels better, because it brings our bodies nearer to the sun! You’re only capable of seeing us as sex objects!” Again Papa and Mama Clevis applauded, but this time their bravos had a somewhat different tone. Their daughter’s words were indeed right, but also somewhat inappropriate for a fourteen-year-old. It was like an eight-year-old boy saying: “If there’s a holdup, Mama, I’ll defend you.” Then too the parents applaud, because their son’s statement is clearly praiseworthy. But since it also shows excessive self-assurance, the praise is rightly shaded by a certain smile. With such a smile the Clevis parents had tinged their second bravos, and their daughter, who had heard that smile in their voices and did not approve of it, repeated with irritated obstinacy: “That’s over and done with. I’m not anybody’s sex object.” Without smiling, the parents merely nodded, not wanting to incite their daughter any further. Jan, however, could not resist saying: “My dear girl, if you only knew how easy it is not to be a sex object.” He uttered these words softly, but with such sincere sorrow that they resounded in the room for a long while. They were words difficult to pass over in silence, but it was not possible to respond to them either. They did not deserve approval, not being progressive, but neither did they deserve argument, because they were not obviously against progress. There were the worst words possible, because they were situated outside the debate conducted by the spirit of the time. They were words beyond good and evil, perfectly incongruous words.
Milan Kundera
Related 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give... JAMES C. DOBSON People were messy. They were defined not only by what they'd done, but by what they would have done,... VICTORIA SCHWAB Nothing can escape death. Not even the Sun. Not even the Earth. Not even the unive... HINA YU Of course there are mothers, squeezing their breasts dry, pawning their bodies, shedd... MARGARET ATWOOD When words don’t add up in love, it is because of six possible reasons: 1. They are af... SHANNON L. ALDER There were once two sisters who were not afriad of the dark because the dark was full of t... JANDY NELSON On Pleasure Pleasure is a freedom-song, But it is not freedom. It is the... KAHLIL GIBRAN TRINA: I'm tired of all the happy men who rule the world. Their smile, their smile's their... WILLIAM FINN Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY Did you look up 'incubus'?" Ren asked, in her ear. She heard a smile in his voice. "Yes. ... MOLLY RINGLE Because like the depths of the ocean that calls you home, you will never be easy. But dar... JEANETTE LEBLANC I have friends like that—very straightforward and responsible, good at what they do, good home lif... MIYUKI MIYABE Just because someone desires you, it does not mean that they value you. Read it ove... NAYYIRAH WAHEED Souls" When two souls fall in love, there is nothing else but the yearning to be close to ... LANG LEAV Yes, yes, it ended in my corrupting them all! How it could come to pass I do not know, but I re... FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY In the 1950s kids lost their innocence. They were liberated from their parents by well-paying j... RAVI ZACHARIAS I have friends like that—very straightforward and responsible, good at what they do, good home lif... MIYUKI MIYABE You are not wrong," Laurence said. He had assumed as much himself, after all, in his Navy days: had ... NAOMI NOVIK Words Be careful of words, even the miraculous ones. For the miraculous ... ANNE SEXTON Nell did not imagine that Constable Moore wanted to get into a detailed discussion of recent events,... NEAL STEPHENSON For those who are not frightened by the solitude, everything will have a different taste. PAULO COELHO I love you." Isobel said. Because even if the words could not stop what was coming, they were still ... KELLY CREAGH WHAT IS TRUTH? Truth is not a thing Or a concept. It is as multidimensional SUZY KASSEM Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself... KAHLIL GIBRAN Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, ... DYLAN THOMAS My dad said to me a few years ago: "There's no harm in thinking." We were talking about Crazy Uncle ... MARIAH FREDERICKS He fell to the seat, she by his side. There were no more words. The stars were beginning to shine. H... VICTOR HUGO they thought that writing had something to do with the politics of the thing. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rag... DYLAN THOMAS Dear Child, Sometimes on your travel through hell, you meet people that think they are i... SHANNON L. ALDER They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, ‘they have found them too difficult. They want a... MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY FORBIDDEN Pain without learning is forbidden, waking up one day not knowing what to do, JOSé N. HARRIS With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.<... LAURENCE ROBERT BINYON All round me are words, and words and words, They grow on me like leaves, they never Seem ... KAMALA SURAIYYA DAS I don't know, I can't quite get it." "Don't try. It's just words." "Just words?" AIDAN CHAMBERS I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me. If I had had wo... MADELINE MILLER The progeny will be lost and adrift. Without the integrals reinforcing their focus and purpose, they... G.S. JENNSEN And Olvos said to them: “Why have you done this, my children? Why is the sky wreathed with smok... ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT The Genius Of The Crowd there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the avera... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The Greeks believed that it was a citizen's duty to watch a play. It was a kind of work in that it r... TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. MARTIN NIEMOLLER The things that could be controlled, though, was this moment. And Elijah kissed me like it was a nat... NADèGE RICHARDS But… all I said was that I was scared." After what you got to experience? That's smart... JIM BUTCHER The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed." "I suppose one ... JOHN FOWLES I heard of a man who says words so beautifully that if he only speaks their name wome... LEONARD COHEN . . .our whispered words, faintly in the darkness, dissolving within the trees—then, fleeting... JOHN DANIEL THIEME To this I replied, "I still think that my body is not merely a sensory appearance, for surely it cam... DUDJOM LINGPA All right, my hope—but I am not saying the rest of it—I have something you need to feel.” SHERRY THOMAS how far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps? how often have you... WARSAN SHIRE The heights by great men reached and kept Were not obtained by sudden flight, But they, while... HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The following are not my words, i have seen it some where . But i wish to share it here for every on... ANOOP ASHOK The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty. ... MILAN KUNDERA Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. ... KAHLIL GIBRAN Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply be... BUDDHA If you can’t find good in your own country, you won’t find it anywhere else.” The wo... ALAA AL ASWANY The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make... LEWIS CARROLL Outside, the world had become a formless, swirling mist with no shapes or shadows behind it, wh... NEIL GAIMAN Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other ... E.A. BUCCHIANERI Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen.... ARUNDHATI ROY Do you want to improve the world? I don't think it can be done. The world is sacred.... LAO TZU But I love you, and before you say it words do matter. They're not pointless. If they were pointless... CATH CROWLEY but nothing I ever gave was good for you; it was like white bread to goldfish. they cram a... MARGARET ATWOOD What happiness? Here we have a kind of what they call a multiple choice question. 1 MINUTO NA PALMA DA MãO And I — my head oppressed by horror — said: "Master, what is it that I hear? Who are t... DANTE ALIGHIERI Once out of the mailroom, I began to learn more about fear. As soon as fear begins to ascend, a... DON DELILLO Because the birdsong might be pretty, But it's not for you they sing, And if you think my ... ERIN HANSON Why Not You? Today, many will awaken with a fresh sense of inspiration. Why not you? STEVE MARABOLI About the library," he whispered. He took out the pencil stub from his pocket and poised it over the... LAURA WHITCOMB The past had already been dealt with, to one end or another, it was certain, fixed, the horror of it... HAZEL BUTLER Thus Epicurus also, when he designs to destroy the natural fellowship of mankind, at the same time m... EPICTETUS You never knew the last time you were seeing someone. You didn't know when the last argument happene... J.R. WARD Do you remember how the sun, set On the occasion, we last conversed? First, it hid b... ZUBAIR AHSAN On the right side-panel of the verbose and somewhat tautological box of Cheerios, it is written, TOM ROBBINS These thoughts are depressing I know. They are depressing, I wish I was more cheerful, it is m... STEVIE SMITH The only ghosts, I believe, who creep into this world, are dead young mothers, returned to see... J.M. BARRIE I lifted my face to meet the kiss, wanting the comfort of his touch as much as I was willing to prov... AMELIA ATWATER-RHODES It may not feel too classy, begging just to eat But you know who does that? Lassie, and s... JOSS WHEDON DAISIES It is possible, I suppose that sometime we will learn everything there ... MARY OLIVER He, too, stood looking at her for a moment--and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting ... AYN RAND They do not learn, fixed in their ways as they are. You are naïve to think otherwise. It’s a... OLIVER BOWDEN - I didn't seduce her! OK, I didn't know exactly what I was doing. It seemed like fun and then... we... MOMCHIL YOSKOV If you were coming in the fall, I'd brush the summer by, With half a smile and half a spur... EMILY DICKINSON If we talk about the living oracles and want to pay respect to them, how shall we do this? Shall we ... JOHN A. WIDTSOE I saw thee once - only once - years ago: I must not say how many - but not many. It was a ... EDGAR ALLAN POE Nothing they say or do can ever change the man you are,” Trinity continued. “A man I love with a... C.A. HARMS The Master's Sacred Knowledge. Love is the treasure you should seek! The grea... ALLAN RUFUS Scientists want to search for alien signals because that's what gets them publicity. They are like J... MANU JOSEPH There were once two sisters who shared the same room, the same clothes, the same thoughts... JANDY NELSON Among the greatest tragedies is a person who believes that they aren't meant to win--by winning I me... JACOB NORDBY “So how’d you do it? How did you get to where you aren’t scared all the freaking time?” DANIEL ABRAHAM They laid their hands upon my head, They stroked my cheek and brow; And time could heal a hu... DOROTHY PARKER I’ve always hated it when authors seem to find joy In killing my favorite characters. Wi... JUSTIN WETCH …Lovers were not, Marina, *are* not permitted to know destruction so deeply. Must be as if th... RAINER MARIA RILKE The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken SARAH KAY Or maybe they just accept that it's wrong in God's eyes, although not in their own, and they'll worr... CRAIG GROESCHEL He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. She was the bo... MARKUS ZUSAK It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined Half of the night with our old friend Who�... THOM GUNN The flowers that I left in the ground, that I did not gather for you, today I bring them... LEONARD COHEN The villains were always ugly in books and movies. Necessarily so, it seemed. Because if they were a... NENIA CAMPBELL You were like reading a good novel. The kind were you wanted to turn every page, & never put it ... TREVOR DRIGGERS
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 During the twenty years of Odesseus' absence, the people of Ithaca retained many recollections of hi... MILAN KUNDERA ქვეყნისათვის სიცოცხლის გაწირვა: ყველ... MILAN KUNDERA Mesmerized, all she can do is watch this piece of her life move off; all she can do is watch it and ... MILAN KUNDERA All predictions are wrong, that's one of the few certainties granted to mankind. MILAN KUNDERA In that etymological light nostalgia seems something like the pain of ignorance, of not knowing. You... MILAN KUNDERA If in the past people would listen to music out of love for music, nowadays it roars everywhere and ... MILAN KUNDERA إذ يستطيع جيشان كبيران أن يتصارعا حتى الموت من أجل قضاي... MILAN KUNDERA A person who messes up her goodbyes shouldn't expect much from her reunions. MILAN KUNDERA That’s another enigma about memory, more basic than all the rest: do recollections have some measu... MILAN KUNDERA كلما كان الزمن الذي نخلفه وراءنا أكبر كلما أصبح الصوت ا... 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