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
Wasn't he the one who said you shouldn't trust anybody who calls himself an ordinar man? - Naoko
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests skepticism towards those who claim to be ordinary, implying that such claims may be disingenuous.
In this quote, the speaker questions the validity of individuals who label themselves as 'ordinary'. It prompts us to consider the complexities of identity and the notion that true self-awareness may reveal extraordinary characteristics beneath a mundane exterior. The quote challenges the listener to reflect on societal norms and the dangers of accepting simplistic definitions of individuals based on self-proclaimed ordinariness.
Themes
TrustOrdinarySelf-AwarenessIdentitySkepticism
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about authenticity and self-identity.
More from Haruki Murakami
All quotes →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.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Memories and thoughts age, just as people do. But certain thoughts can never age, and certain memories can never fade.
Haruki MurakamiRead
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.
Haruki MurakamiRead
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.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Similar quotes
There is no little sin, because no little God to sin against.
Thomas BrooksRead
The principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites-Acquiescence and violence -while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.
Al-GhazaliRead
The intelligent poor individual was a much finer observer than the intelligent rich one. The poor individual looks around him at every step, listens suspiciously to every word he hears from the people he meets; thus, every step he takes presents a problem, a task, for his thoughts and feelings. He is alert and sensitive, he is experienced, his soul has been burned.
Knut HamsunRead
In dreams, we enter a world that’s entirely our own.
J. K. RowlingRead
We object not to the narration of the deeds of our unregenerate condition, but to the mode in which it is too often done. Let sin have its monument, but let it be a heap of stones cast by the hands of execration - not a mausoleum erected by the hands of affection.
Charles SpurgeonRead