He was no longer quite sure whether anything he had ever thought or felt was truly his own property, or whether his thoughts were merely a common par… - Milan Kundera

Abroad, she discovered that the transformation of music into noise was a planetary process by which mankind was entering the historical phase of total ugliness. The total ugliness to come had made itself felt first as omnipresent acoustical ugliness: cars, motorcycles, electric guitars, drills, loudspeakers, sirens. The omnipresence of visual ugliness would soon follow.

تصور کنید یک دست شما را قطع کرده و به پیکر شخص دیگری پیوند زده باشند و یک روز، کسی در مقابل شما می‌نشیند و جلو روی شما، این دست را تکان می‌دهد و با آن به شما اشاره می‌کند. بدون تردید فکر می‌کنید که این یک مترسک است و هرچند که با آن به‌تمامی آشنا باشید، هرچند که مطمئن باشید که این دست خود شماست ولی از اینکه لمسش کنید، هراس خواهید داشت.

Unlike the puerile loyalty to a conviction, loyalty to a friend is a virtue - perhaps the only virtue, the last remaining one.