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And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it… — Milan Kundera

Novel

And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.

In the original Czech

千里之行，始於足下。

Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being · 1984
★ 1.9
Other tags relating to this quote
Topic
TimeHappinessThe human condition
Medium
Novel
Time
1984
Person
Milan Kundera
Provenance
Current citation
Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.
Original citation
Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

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