How was she to reconcile men's desire with the desire to be beautiful in their eyes? At first she had tried for a compromise (desperate journeys abroad, where nobody knew her and no indiscretion could betray her); then, later on, she had gone radical and sacrificed her erotic life to her beauty. Milan Kundera
About This Quote

There is a fine balance between the need to be beautiful, and the desire to be desired. When women become too beautiful, society takes issue with their beauty. They are seen as morally reprehensible because it is said that they are not attractive enough to deserve attention. However, when women stop trying to be beautiful, society takes issue with their sexuality. They are seen as morally reprehensible because they are not desirable enough to warrant attention.

Source: Ignorance

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Do you think I'm pretty? I think you're beautiful Beautiful? You are so beautiful, it hurts sometimes. - Richelle Mead

  2. As if you were on fire from within. The moon lives in the lining of your skin. - Pablo Neruda

  3. To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the... - Unknown

  4. The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely. - Louisa May Alcott

  5. A fit, healthy body–that is the best fashion statement - Jess C. Scott

More Quotes By Milan Kundera
  1. Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful.

  2. You can't measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.

  3. 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...

  4. He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

  5. I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.

Related Topics