When a woman doesn't live sufficiently through her body, she comes to see the body as an enemy. - Milan Kundera

She knew, of course that she was being supremely unfair, that Franz was the best man she ever had- he was intelligent, he understood her paintings, he was handsome and good-but the more she thought about it, the more she longed to ravish his intelligence, defile his kindheartedness, and violate his powerless strength

Rejection and privilege, happiness and woe — no one felt more concretely than Yakov
how interchangeable opposites are, how short the step from one pole of human
existence to the other.

People thought up the idea that animals don't have the same capability of suffering as humans, because otherwise they couldn't bear the knowledge that they are surrounded by a world of nature that is horror, and nothing but horror.