The more vast the amount of time we've left behind us, the more irresistible is the voice calling us to return to it. - Milan Kundera

it is wrong to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences... but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life a dimension of beauty.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which is deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.

In a society run by terror, no statements whatsoever can be taken seriously.