Litost Quotes

“(...) the woman we love ought to swim as slowly as we do, she ought to have no past of her own to look back on happily. But when the illusion of absolute identity vanishes (the girl looks back happily on her past or swims faster), love becomes a permanent source of the great torment we call litost.”
― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“Or take an instance from the student’s childhood: His parents made him take violin lessons. He was not very gifted and his teacher would interrupt him to criticize his mistakes in a cold, unbearable voice. He felt humiliated, and he wanted to cry. But instead of trying to play in tune and not make mistakes, he would deliberately play wrong notes, the teacher’s voice would become still more unbearable and harsh, and he himself would sink deeper and deeper into his litost.
What then is litost?
Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.”
― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“Everything feels utopian at some point or another. The ideas we have accepted today felt utopian in the previous era. If reformers would have given up their 'fight to abolish Sati' as an utopian idea, we would have never gotten rid of the practice. The question is; how far is our generation ready to go against the grain, when we see injustice happening in our day? Are we ready to introspect, why the idea of brotherhood across religious and caste lines feels utopian and radical today?”
― Samir Satam, Litost: Sliced Stories

“Lítost je češka riječ neprevodiva na ostale jezike. Označava osjećaj nezavršen kao rastegnuta harmonika, osjećaj koji je sinteza mnogih drugih osjećaja: žalosti, sućuti, grižnje savjesti i tuge. Prvi slog te riječi izgovara se dugo i naglašeno i zvuči kao cvilež napuštena psa.

No, u određenim okolnostima, riječ lítost ima pak vrlo suženo značenje, posebno, točno i britko kao oštrica noža. Za to njeno značenje također uzaludno tražim odgovarajuću riječ u drugim jezicima, iako ne mogu zamisliti da se bez njega može razumjeti ljudska duša. [...]

Lítost je stanje otužnosti, rođene pogledom na vlastitu, naglo otkrivenu bijedu.

Jedan od uobičajenih lijekova protiv vlastite bijede je ljubav. Jer onaj tko je potpuno voljen, ne može biti bijedan. Sve njegove nedostatke iskupljuje čaroban pogled ljubavi u kojemu i nespretno plivanje s glavom nad vodom postaje očaravajuće.

Potpunost ljubavi je zapravo želja za potpunim izjednačenjem: želja da voljena žena pliva sporo kao i mi, da nema prošlosti koja pripada samo njoj i koje bi se sa srećom mogla sjećati. Ali, ako je iluzija potpunog izjednačenja narušena (djevojka pliva brže ili se sjeća sretne prošlosti), ljubav postaje neprestanim izvorom te velike smutnje koju zovemo lítost.

Duboko iskustvo je zajedno s nesavršenošću čovjeka uglavnom sklonište od tih ispada. Pogled na našu vlastitu bijedu uobičajen je i nezanimljiv. Lítost je, dakle, crta dobi neiskustva. To je jedan od ukrasa mladosti.”
― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“I am not a visitor. I am more of a trespasser, interested in secret little deaths of people who think they are alive, people who are inching towards death with each breathing moment, people who don't realize that life is just a temporary phase of a long journey, like I never did when I was alive, people who will soon become trespassers like me. Why do I think that this phase of trespassing is permanent? Maybe I too am just as stupid as these humans to think I am wiser than them!”
― Samir Satam, Litost: Sliced Stories

“Tenderness is as much a curse as it is a boon.”
― Samir Satam, Litost: Sliced Stories