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
There had to be something wrong with my life. I should have been born a Yugoslavian shepherd who looked up at the Big Dipper every night.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a longing for a different, simpler life and hints at existential questioning.
In this quote, Haruki Murakami expresses a sense of dissatisfaction with his own life, suggesting that he would have preferred the simplicity and peace of a shepherd's existence under the night sky. This yearning for a different reality indicates deeper themes of identity, purpose, and connection to nature, inviting readers to contemplate their own life choices and aspirations.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about personal fulfillment during a philosophy class.
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.
It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.
H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."
Our behavior toward each other is the strangest, most unpredictable, and most unaccountable of all the phenomena with which we are obliged to live. In all of nature, there is nothing so threatening to humanity as humanity itself.
One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what ego does. It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.
If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.
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