Quotessence
Home / Books / Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Book by Haruki Murakami · 44 quotes · Mind, Life, Love

Filter quotes by topic

AllMindLifeLoveHarukiMurakamiEvolutionHard Boiled WonderlandMurakami HarukiSelfBeliefDespairDisillusionmentHappinessIdentityNovel QuotesRomanSadSchoolStars50

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Quotes

“On the whole, I think of myself as one of those people who take a convenience-sake view of prevailing world conditions, events, existence in general. Not that I′m such a blasé, convenience-sake sort of guy---although I do have tendencies in that direction---but because more often than not I′ve observed that convenient approximations bring you closest to comprehending the true nature of things.”

TruthEssential
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“I never had what it takes to make a first-rate anything.' 'That's wrong,' she declared. 'Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It's just a matter of drawing it out, isn't it?' But school doesn't know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It's no wonder most people never get to be what they want to be. They just get ground down.”

SchoolMurakamiHarukiHard Boiled Wonderland
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“But like a boat with a twisted rudder, I kept coming back to the same place. I wasn't going anywhere. I was myself, waiting on the shore for me to return. Was that so depressing? Who knows? Maybe that was 'despair.' What Turgenev called 'disillusionment.' Or Dostoyevsky, 'hell.' Or Somerset Maugham, 'reality.' Whatever the label, I figured it was me.”

SelfRealityHellDespairDisillusionmentDostoyevskyMaugham
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Szerettem volna hangosan elsírni magam, de minek. Könnyeket ejteni - túl öreg és tapasztalt voltam én már ahhoz. Van a világon olyan bánat is, amit nem lehet megsiratni. Az a fajta, amit senkinek se lehet elmondani, s ha mégis, akkor sem értik meg. Ez a szomorúság megváltoztathatatlan, csendben megüli a szívet, felhalmozódik, mint a hó szélcsendes éjszakákon.”

Sadness
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“They dig holes from time to time,' the Colonel explains. 'It is probably for them what chess is for me. It has no special meaning, does not transport them anywhere. All of us dig at our own pure holes. We have nothing to achieve by our activities, nowhere to get to. Is there not something marvelous about this? We hurt no one and no one gets hurt. No victory, no defeat.”

VictoryPureDefeatHoles
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Forget genius. It doesn't do much for innocent bystanders. Especially if everyone's going to want a piece of the action. That's why this whole mess happened in the first place. Genius or fool, you don't live in the world alone. You can hide underground or you can build a wall around yourself, but somebody's going to come along and screw up the works.”

GeniusLivingConnection
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Were the stars out when I left the house last evening? All I could remember was the couple in the Skyline listening to Duran Duran. Stars? Who remembers stars? Come to think of it, had I even looked up at the sky recently? Had the stars been wiped out of the sky three months ago, I wouldn't have known. The only things I noticed were silver bracelets on women's wrists and popsicle sticks in potted rubber plants. 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. No car, no car stereo, no silver bracelets, no shuffling, no dark blue tweed suits. My world foreshortened, flattening into a credit card. Seen head on, things seemed merely skewed, but from the side the view was virtually meaningless—a one-dimensional wafer. Everything about me may have been crammed in there, but it was only plastic. Indecipherable except to some machine. My first circuit must have been wearing thin. My real memories were receding into planar projection, the screen of consciousness losing all identity.”

StarsIdentityCredit Cards
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Life's funny like that." "A laugh a minute." She put on Danny Boy so I could sing it again. But if you fall as all flowers'er dying, And you are, as dead you well may be, I'll come and find the place where you are lying, And kneel and say an ave there for thee. but come ye back when summer's in― The second time through made me terribly sad. "send me letters from wherever it is you're going," she said, touching me.”

SongLyricsHarukiDanny Boy
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“How can I be strong when I do not know my own mind? I am lost." "That's not true. You are not lost. It's just that your own thoughts are being kept from you, or hidden away. But the mind is strong. It survives, even without thought. Even with everything taken away, it holds a seed-- your self. You must believe in your own powers.”

InspirationalMindLostThoughtsSelf AwarenessSelf RealizationConfusionHopelessness
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“El conocimiento es así. El mundo cambia según nuestra percepción. Existe, sin duda alguna, aquí y de esta forma, pero, desde el punto de vista fenoménico el mundo no es sino una posibilidad entre un número infinito de posibilidades. Para ser más preciso, el mundo cambia según dé uno un paso hacia la derecha o hacia la izquierda. Por lo tanto, el mundo se modifica a medida que cambian los recuerdos.”

ConocimientoMundoRecuerdos
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Elegir es eso. Y uno tiene que elegir el bando que le ofrece mayores posibilidades, aunque la diferencia sea sólo de un miserable uno por ciento. Es como el ajedrez. Te dan un jaque mate, pero tú escapas. Y, mientras te estás escabullendo, es posible que tu adversario meta la pata. Por más poderoso que sea un contrincante, no puede descartarse la posibilidad de que cometa algún error.”

LuchaElegir
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“But how do you see you?" she asked. "Ever read The Brothers Karamazov?" I asked. "Once, a long time ago." "Well, toward the end, Alyosha is speaking to a young student named Kolya Krasotkin. And he says, Kolya, you're going to have a miserable future. But overall, you'll have a happy life." Two beers down, I hesitated before opening my third. "When I first read that, I didn't know what Alyosha meant," I said. "How was it possible for a life of misery to be happy overall? But then I understood, that misery could be limited to the future." "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Neither do I," I said. "Not yet.”

The Brothers Karamazov
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“oğunlukla dürüst bir insanımdır. Anladığım zaman anladım, anlamadığım zaman da net olarak anlamadım derim. İkircikli ifadeler kullanmam. Sorunların büyük kısmının ikircikli ifadeler yüzünden çıktığına inanırım. İnsanların çoğunun ikircikli ifadeler kullanmasını, onların aslında içten içe, bilinçsizce de olsa, sorun çıkmasını arzu etmelerine bağlarım. Başka türlü düşünebilmem mümkün değil.”

RomanMurakamiNovel QuotesMurakami Haruki
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image

“Cuando una persona quiere alcanzar algo piensa de manera espontánea en tres cosas: ¿qué he conseguido hasta el momento? ¿En qué posición me encuentro ahora?¿Qué debo hacer de aquí en adelante? Si uno no puede contestar a esas tres cosas, sólo le queda el miedo, la falta de confianza en sí mismo y el cansancio. Y precisamente en esa situación me encontraba yo.”

Conseguir
Book:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Create image