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 think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Belief in God is subjective and can be influenced by personal perception.
This quote by Haruki Murakami emphasizes the idea that the existence and nature of God are deeply personal and contingent upon individual belief. If someone perceives God to be real, then for them, God exists; conversely, if they do not believe, then God is absent in their reality. Murakami suggests that God's character is ultimately aligned with one's perception, and if that's the case, it’s prudent not to be overly concerned about it.
Themes
BeliefGodPerceptionRealityPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about faith and its role in people’s lives, this quote can emphasize the personal nature of belief.
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
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Henry David ThoreauRead
We are building together a nation in which there are no second-class Australians.
Bob HawkeRead
As compacts, charters of government are superior in obligation to all others, because they give effect to all others. As truths, none can be more sacred, because they are bound, on the conscience by the religious sanctions of an oath. As metes and bounds of government, they transcend all other land-marks, because every public usurpation is an encroachment on the private right, not of one, but of all.
James MadisonRead
A banker warned the British poet Robert Graves that one could not grow rich writing poetry. He replied that if there was no money in poetry, there was certainly no poetry in money, and so it was all even.
Robert GravesRead
I'm one of those introverted people who simply feels a lot better after spending time alone thinking through ideas and emotions. This is a sign, I've come to think, of a kind of emotional disturbance - a reaction to inner fragility. I wish I were more able to just act and do, rather than constantly have to retreat and examine and think.
Alain De BottonRead
Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.
Matthew ArnoldRead