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“In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make. That is why Nietzsche called the idea of eternal return the heaviest of burdens.
If eternal return is the heaviest of burdens, then our lives can stand out against it in all their splendid lightness.
But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
...That is the question. The only certainty is: the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous of all.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
If eternal return is the heaviest of burdens, then our lives can stand out against it in all their splendid lightness.
But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
...That is the question. The only certainty is: the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous of all.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Spanish Readers
— 11001 members
— last activity Jan 19, 2026 10:15AM
Un grupo para lectores de habla hispana para hacer lecturas conjuntas, retos, amigos, compartir opiniones, recomendaciones, ¡y muchas cosas más! Pero ...more
Club de lectura Chile
— 2339 members
— last activity Sep 03, 2025 05:02PM
Sitio para recomendar, comentar, debatir sobre los libros que hemos leído, estamos leyendo y leeremos.
El Club de Lectura - Santiago
— 390 members
— last activity Oct 02, 2023 05:13AM
El primer jueves de cada mes nos juntamos a las 19:30 en la cafetería del GAM a comentar un libro. Al final de cada reunión todos los participantes es ...more
The Nobel Prize in Literature
— 400 members
— last activity Jun 23, 2024 04:33AM
Ah, the Nobel Prize! The decision of a jury of aristocratic Swedes who, since 1901, have awarded the prize to seven of their countrymen and one of the ...more
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