Youth is terrible: it is a stage trod by children in buskins and a variety of costumes mouthing speeches they've memorized and fanatically believe bu… - Milan Kundera

Youth is a terrible thing: it is a stage trod by children in buskins and fancy costumes mouthing speeches they've memorized and fanatically believe but only half understand

Now we are longtime outcasts, flying through the emptiness of time in a straight line. Yet somewhere deep down a thin thread still ties us to that far-off misty Paradise, where Adam leans over a well and, unlike Narcissus, never even suspects that the pale yellow blotch appearing in it is he himself. The longing for Paradise is man's longing not to be man.

أدركنا منذ زمن طويل أنه لم يعد بالإمكان قلب هذا العالم، ولا تغييره إلى الأفضل، ولا إيقاف جريانه البائس إلى الأمام. لم يكن ثمة سوى مقاومة وحيدة ممكنة : ألّا نأخذه على محمل الجد

You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more.