Milan Kundera: Quotes about love

Milan Kundera was Czech author of Czech and French literature. Explore interesting quotes on love.
Milan Kundera: 396 quotes10 likes

“She loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It differentiated her from the others”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“she loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane for the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Pg 5
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part One: Lightness and Weight

“Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together.”

Milan Kundera book Identity

Pg 82
Identity (1998)

“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 233
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight

“A single metaphor can give birth to love.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 10
Variant: Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part One: Lightness and Weight

“loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Physical love is unthinkable without violence.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 111
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Three: Words Misunderstood

“"Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said.
"Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Three: Words Misunderstood

“Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”

Milan Kundera

“Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.”

Milan Kundera

Source: Life is Elsewhere

“Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end."
Love is a battle?" said Franz. "Well, I don't feel at all like fighting." And he left.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made love in his life?) only two or three were really essential and unforgettable. The rest were mere echoes, imitations, repetitions, or reminiscences.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“I have a strong will to love you for eternity.”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

“The moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 160
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Four: Soul and Body

“Once her love had been publicized, it would gain weight, become a burden.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.”

Milan Kundera

“Love is a continual interrogation. I don’t know of a better definition of love.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Variant: ... because love is continual interrogation. I don't know of a better definition of love.
Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting