Mikołaj

“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman).”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Vla­di­mir, Bon­dy i ja tak bar­dzo lubi­li­śmy piwo, że gdy przy­no­szo­no nam do sto­łu po pierw­szym kuflu, wpra­wia­li­śmy w popłoch całą gospo­dę, nabie­ra­li­śmy pia­ny w dło­nie i nacie­ra­li­śmy nią sobie twa­rze, wcie­ra­li­śmy pia­nę we wło­sy jak Żydzi, któ­rzy sma­ru­ją pej­sy wodą z cukrem, a że przy dru­gim piwie powta­rza­li­śmy ten zabieg z pia­ną, świe­ci­li­śmy się i pach­nie­li­śmy piwem na kilo­metr. Przede wszyst­kim jed­nak – to były wygłu­py – był to wyraz nasze­go zachwy­tu piwem, nie­okieł­zna­ne­go zachwy­tu tym, że jeste­śmy mło­dzi. Byliśmy entuzjastami piwa…”
― Bohumil Hrabal, Czuły barbarzyńca