Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one … - Milan Kundera

If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.

La vida humana acontece sólo una vez y por eso nunca podremos averiguar cuáles de nuestras decisiones fueron correctas y cuáles fueron incorrectas. En la situación dada sólo hemos podido decidir una vez y no nos ha sido dada una segunda, una tercera, una cuarta vida para comparar las distintas decisiones.

Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect some day to suffer vertigo.

The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. that is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.