QuoteProject
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.
Haruki Murakami
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

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.

Themes

LifestyleHappinessSuccessIndividualityChoices

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about self-discovery and personal choices.

More from Haruki Murakami

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
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

No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty of a crime by a court.
Rand PaulRead
Every being has the need not only to be but to affirm his own being. This is especially significant for the human organism, for it is gifted with, or condemned to, self-consciousness.
Rollo MayRead
Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Let people return to making knots on ropes, instead of writing.
LaoziRead
What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.
Benjamin B. FerenczRead
Man’s rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from pursuing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment.
Ayn RandRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.