“loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they, too, fade away.”
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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Milan Kundera 198
Czech author of Czech and French literature 1929–2023Related quotes
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force, so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument available in mankind's quest for peace and security. Napoleon Bonaparte, the great military genius, looking back over his years of conquest, is reported to have said: "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended on force. But centuries ago Jesus started an empire that was built on love, and even to this day millions will die for him." Who can doubt the veracity of these words. The great military leaders of the past have gone, their empires have crumbled and burned to ashes. But the empire of Jesus, built solidly and majestically on the foundation of love, is still growing. It started with a small group of dedicated men, who, through the inspiration of their Lord, were able to shake the hinges form the gates of the Roman Empire, and carry the gospel into all the world. Today the vast earthly kingdom of Christ numbers more than 900,000,000 and covers every land and tribe.
“We love until we do not. For us, love doesn't fade gradually. It snaps like a branch bent too far.”
Source: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Not Fade Away, written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty
Song lyrics, The "Chirping" Crickets (1957)
“Philosophies, like old soldiers, do not die, they merely fade away.”
Pragmatism and the Outlook of Modern Science (1966)
“It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out.”
Playboy interview (1980)
Context: It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison — it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo.
Source: The Book of Joe (2005), 2014-January-15 http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Book_of_Joe.html?id=_T5MCwAL4owC,
“I feel half faded away like some figure in the background of an old picture.”
Source: A Severed Head
