You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.
Haruki MurakamiRead
If you miss the bus, miss the train, you’d be left behind. So everyone says, let’s get on the train, let’s get on the bus and go faster and get rich... I just didn’t like that kind of lifestyle. I love to read books, to listen to music.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of personal choice over societal pressure to pursue wealth and success.
In this quote, Haruki Murakami reflects on the societal expectations of constantly striving for success and the pursuit of wealth. He contrasts this lifestyle with his own preferences for enjoying life through reading and listening to music, suggesting that fulfillment comes from personal interests rather than external pressures. This expresses a philosophical viewpoint that values individual happiness over material gain, encouraging people to choose their own paths.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-discovery and personal choices.
You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.
They take the circuits out of people’s brains that make it possible for them to think for themselves. Their world is like the one that George Orwell depicted in his novel. I’m sure you realize that there are plenty of people who are looking for exactly that kind of brain death. It makes life a lot easier. You don’t have to think about difficult things, just shut up and do what your superiors tell you to do.
Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.
I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.
Everybody burns out in this world; amateur, pro, it doesn't matter, they all burn out, they all get hurt, the OK guys and the not-OK guys both. That's why everybody takes out a little insurance. I've got some too, here at the bottom of the heap. That way, you manage to survive if you burn out. If you're all by yourself and don't belong anywhere, you go down once, and you're out. Finished.
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.
In the immediate as well as the symbolic sense, in the physical as well as the intellectual sense, we are at any moment those who separate the connected, or connect the separate.
Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.
Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.
Discrimination is not liberal. Arguing against discrimination is not intolerance.
All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.
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