ika > ika's Quotes

“Now I have neither happiness nor unhappiness.

Everything passes.

That is the one and only thing that I have thought resembled a truth in the society of human beings where I have dwelled up to now as in a burning hell.

Everything passes.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

“I am convinced that human life is filled with many pure, happy, serene examples of insincerity, truly splendid of their kind-of people deceiving one another without (strangely enough) any wounds being inflicted, of people who seem unaware even that they are deceiving one another.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

“Why does the night have to be so beautiful? As I walk through the night, I remember what Mitsutsuka said to me. “Because at night, only half the world remains.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“I was so scared of being hurt that I'd done nothing. I was so scared of failing, of being hurt, that I choose nothing. I did nothing.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“The light at night is special because the overwhelming light of day has left us, and the remaining half draws on everything it has to keep the world around us bright.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“Memory's funny, isn't it? We remember some things out of nowhere, but so much of what happens, we never think about again.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“As I passed below the haloes of the green and red traffic signals, I was taken by this strange view of the evening, the city streets full of people— people waiting, the people they were waiting for, people out to eat together, people going somewhere together, people heading home together. I allowed my thoughts to settle on the brightness filling their hearts and lungs, squinting as I walked along and counted all the players of this game I would never play.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“I’d been on my own for ages, and I was convinced that there was no way I could be any more alone, but now I’d finally realized how alone I truly was. Despite the crowds of people, and all the different places, and a limitless supply of sounds and colors packed together, there was nothing here that I could reach out and touch.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“I thought about the books that I had looked through in the bookstore. It occurred to me that they were full of things that people wanted to say to other people, or things people wanted somebody to say to them.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“There are lives completely comprised of ambushes. Lives where you want to scream to the skies, to the earth, rip out your heart and cry the fates, How could this happen? But nothing comes out of your mouth … But to live through it, that is human. Your father wanted to be by your side but you wouldn’t let him come, and he was so tortured by that. How worried he was that there was not a word from you, like a dead person. Like recognizes like. I saw it when you first stepped into the yard. That you’re someone who has already died before. I know how hard it is to keep living despite this, but the only human friend I have in this life is your father. Please let him be by your side. Endure with him, enjoy the sunlight with him, pick fruit with him, sweep the snow with him, all of that. Tell him your stories and listen to him tell his. What else is there to do for each other.”
― Shin Kyung-Sook, I Went To See My Father

“How can you live without trusting people? There are more people who are good than people who are bad!”
― Kyung-Sook Shin, Please Look After Mom

“If there were no sea between you and me...there wouldn't be this painful goodbye”
― Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom

“Everything was beautiful. Not that there was anyone to share it with, anyone to tell. Just the beauty.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

“But I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I guess I was crying because we had nowhere else to go, no choice but to go on living in this world. Crying because we had no other world to choose, and crying at everything before us, everything around us.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

“Because we’re always in pain, we know exactly what it means to hurt somebody else.”
― Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

“Your map has yet to be drawn. Which makes it impossible to decide where you’re going, much less how you’re going to get there.
Faced with a blank map, who wouldn’t feel lost? It would puzzle anyone.
But try this on for size. A blank map means you can fill it in however you like. It’s entirely up to you. Everything is open; the possibilities are limitless.
It’s a beautiful thing. I can only hope this helps you find a way to start believing in yourself, and to move through life with no regrets.”
― Keigo Higashino, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store

“Hey, take a good look, isn't the world still under your feet? I'm on this ground, and on this same ground are trees and grass and ants carrying sand to their nests, little girls chasing rolling balls, and puppies running.

This ground runs under countless houses and mountains and rivers and seas, under everywhere. And I'm on it.

Don't be scared, I'd told myself, the world is still under me.”
― Ryū Murakami, Almost Transparent Blue

“When I start to feel emotional about something, I can't tell if I'm actually feeling that way. What if it's just something somebody wrote in a book? Or maybe a line or a performance from some movie... Either way, I get this feeling like I'm quoting somebody else's work.”
― Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

“In a world where you don’t know what will happen next, I just do what I can right now.”
― Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking for is in the Library

“And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“You're going to realize it one day-- that happiness was never about your job or your degree or being in a relationship. Happiness was never about following in the footsteps of all of those who came before you; it was never about being like the others.

One day, you're going to see it-- that happiness was always about the discovery, the hope, the listening to your heart and following it wherever it chose to go. Happiness was always about being kinder to yourself; it was always about embracing the person you were becoming.

One day, you will understand that happiness was always about learning how to live with yourself, that your happiness was never in the hands of others. It was always about you. It was always about you.”
― Bianca Sparacino, The Strength In Our Scars