We the People interview (1996)
Context: I do not believe that friendship today can flower out — can come out — of political life. I do believe that if there is something like a political life to be — to remain for us, in this world of technology — then it begins with friendship.
Therefore my task is to cultivate disciplined, self-denying, careful, tasteful friendships. Mutual friendships always. I-and-you and, I hope, a third one, out of which perhaps community can grow. Because perhaps here we can find what the good is.
“Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.”
Source: Encounter
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Milan Kundera 198
Czech author of Czech and French literature 1929–2023Related quotes
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
We the People interview (1996)
Context: While once friendship in our western tradition was the supreme flower of politics, I think that if community life exists at all today, it is in some way the consequence of friendship cultivated by each one who initiates it. This goes beyond anything which people usually talk about, saying each one of you is responsible for the friendships he/she can develop, because society will only be as good as the political result of these friendships.
“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”
“Friendship's best,' I said, 'and friendship's forever because no baby can come along to spoil it.”
The Wheel of Fortune (1984), Part 1: Robert