Haruki Murakami Life Quotations

Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

What we needed were not words and promises but a steady accumulation of small realities.

Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to sleep through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there- to the edge of the world. There's something you can't do unless you get there.

I always feel like I'm struggling to become someone else. Like I'm trying to find a new place, grab hold of a new life, a new personality. I guess it's part of growing up; it's also an attempt to reinvent myself.

two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.

Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off.

If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.

What we call the present is given shape by an accumulation of the past.

Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.

You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.

As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.

Chance encounters are what keep us going.

What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.

Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.

Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.

People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.

Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.

The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.

Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That's all.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars.

Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.

No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.

Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.

Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.

If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person.

No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.

Even if we could turn back, we'd probably never end up where we started.