Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.
Interpretation
Mysticism and exaggeration are interconnected, and one must not fear judgment to explore profound experiences.
In this quote, Milan Kundera suggests that mysticism, which often involves deep spiritual insights or experiences, is frequently misunderstood and subject to ridicule. He emphasizes the importance of embracing these intense experiences, whether they lead to humility or joy, without being deterred by the judgment of others. This exploration is vital for personal growth and understanding oneβs place in the world.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech encouraging people to pursue their passions despite external judgment.
Which doesn't mean, of course, that I'd stopped loving her, that I'd forgotten her, or that her image had paled; on the contrary; in the form of a quiet nostalgia she remained constantly within me; I longed for her as one longs for something definitively lost.
Facts mean little compared to attitudes. To contradict rumor or sentiment is as futile as arguing against a believer's faith in the Immaculate Conception. You have simply become a victim of faith, Comrade Assistant.
While people are fairly young and the musical composition of their lives is still in its opening bars, they can go about writing it together and sharing motifs (the way Tomas and Sabina exchanged the motif of the bowler hat), but if they meet when they are older, like Franz and Sabina, their musical compositions are more or less complete, and every motif, every object, every word means something different to each of them.
Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.
Sensuality is the total mobilization of the senses: an individual observes his partner intently, straining to catch every sound.
A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.
For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.
And in truth (as I now see) I had the wish to put off my journey as long as I could. Not for any peril or labour it might cost; but because I could see nothing in the whole world for me to do once it was accomplished. AS long as this act lay before me, there was, as it were, some barrier between me and the dead desert which the rest of my life must be.
A distracted existence leads us to no goal
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