Carlos Crespo

“Así pensaba cuando tenía tu edad, y sigo pensando lo mismo. Tal vez porque no he madurado, o tal vez porque siempre he tenido razón.”
― Haruki Murakami

“Con respecto a quienes alcanzan una posición elevada sin tener derecho a ella por nacimiento, lo cierto es que, a pesar de su ranga, lo sociedad no experimenta del todo los mismos sentimientos hacia ellos, mientras que en el caso de quienes en el pasado tuvieron una posición encumbrada, pero en el presente carecen de medios y pasan por una mala época, decaen hasta que no les queda nada más que su orgullo y padecen un infortunio sin fin. Creo que estos dos grupos pertenecen al grado medio.”
― Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji

“He once told me about polar bears - what solitary animals they are. They mate just once a year. One time in a whole year. There is no such thing as a lasting male-female bond in their world. One male polar bear and one female polar bear meet by sheer chance somewhere in the frozen vastness, and they mate. It doesn't take long. And once they are finished, the male runs away from the female as if he is frightened to death: he runs from the place where they have mated. He never looks back - literally. The rest of the year he lives in deep solitude. Mutual communications - the touching of two hearts - do not exist for them. So, that is the story of polar bears - or at least it is what my employer told me about them.'

How very strange.'

Yes, it is strange. I remember asking my employer, ' Then what do polar bears exist for?' ' Yes, exactly,' he said with a big smile. 'Then what do we exist for?”
― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

“And so my last policy recommendation is to listen to the dissidents, even if you do not like what they have to say. They are the ones who reveal to us the dark realities of our societies, the realities that most of us have the luxury to turn away from. Listen to the dissidents because they warn us of the threats that target minorities first and inevitably spread to the majority. Every society has his dissidents, not just dictatorships. They speak for the disenfranchised, the ignored, and the persecuted. Listen to them now, because they speak of what is to come.”
― Garry Kasparov, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped