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This is the real and the only reason for friendship: to provide a mirror so the other person can contemplate his image from the past, which, without the eternal blah-blah of memories between pals, would long ago have disappeared.

— Milan Kundera Identity (1998)

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Friendship

More quotes by Milan Kundera

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

Fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.

Testaments Betrayed (1995)

Whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

Nothing is more repugnant to me than brotherly feelings grounded in the common baseness people see in one another.

The Joke (1967)

In the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

All Milan Kundera quotes →

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the greatest bliss.

Gautama Buddha

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree;
Oh the joys that came down shower-like,
Of friendship, love, and liberty,
Ere I was old!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Anaïs Nin Diary entries (1914)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Milan Kundera (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.