How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph), with the exception of Part V, which runs (Part#. "Short Title". Paragraph). Part V has no numbered chapters—only title headings.
Quote #4
Things deprived suddenly of their supposed meaning, of the place assigned to them in the so-called order of things...make us laugh. In origin, laughter is thus of the devil's domain. It has something malicious about it (things suddenly turning out different from what they pretended to be), but to some extent also a beneficent relief (things are less weighty than they appeared to be...) (III.4.4)
Kundera is a bit superstitious in his thinking about laughter: for him, no good can come of it. That's because it strips people and situations of their dignity. It turns solemn occasions into meaningless shows. Laughter transforms perfectly deep extramarital affairs into something ridiculous. And that will never do. While Kundera seems to give some respect to laughter in this passage (he says it makes things less weighty), lightness is not always a good thing. Look at what happens to Tamina (and Czechoslovakia) when they get the lightness they hope for.
Quote #5
Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery. (V."Litost?".5)
Kundera is so taken with the concept of litost that he devotes an entire section of this book to it. Heck, it even takes him several chapters to develop a good working definition of it. Litost is a state of torment that works on two levels: first, there's humiliation or loss, and then there's the need for revenge. It seems that litost belongs particularly to men (at least, in the examples that he gives), and that might be something worth looking into. It seems like Kundera's male characters don't have strong coping mechanisms for the "sudden sight" of their own misery.
Quote #6
Which makes me think that when someone can neither slap a girl who swims too fast nor get himself killed by the Persians, when he has no means of escaping from litost, then poetry's charm flies to his assistance. (V. "Glory".11)
Kundera is tongue in cheek about the student's ability to cope with not only litost but also "litost block"—that horrible condition when a person suffering from litost can't seek revenge on the one who gave them a glimpse of their own misery or unworthiness. While the student has to take responsibility for his longstanding celibacy, Petrarch's poetic reading of Kristyna's "love letter" somehow takes the sting of disappointment away by making the student an object of scholarly admiration.