Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought. - Milan Kundera

Adventure, the first great theme of the novel.

And Jakub realized that this child had done no harm, that he was not guilty of anything, and yet had been born with bad eyes and would have them forever. And he reflected further that what he had held against others was something given, something they came into the world with and carried with them like a heavy wire fence. He reflected that he had no privileged right to high-mindedness and that the highest degree of high-mindedness is to love people even though they are murderers.

The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order.