Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by the power of inertia. Every year it gets harder to… - Milan Kundera

The termites of reduction have always gnawed away at life: even the greatest love ends up as a skeleton of feeble memories.

"Why don't you ever use your strength on me?" she said.
Because love means renouncing strength," said Franz softly."

We don't know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don't understand our name at all, we don't know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration