More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
June 17 - June 21, 2019
“Pain is what gives rise to meditation. It has nothing to do with age,
People whose freedom is taken away always end up hating somebody. Right? I know I don’t want to live like that.”
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. So said Voltaire, the realist.”
“Everything has boundaries. The same holds true with thought. You shouldn’t fear boundaries, but you also should not be afraid of destroying them. That’s what is most important if you want to be free: respect for and exasperation with boundaries. What’s really important in life is always the things that are secondary. That’s about all I can say.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Tsukuru said. “Sure.” “In different religions prophets fall into a kind of ecstasy and receive a message from an absolute being.” “Correct.” “And this takes place somewhere that transcends free will, right? Always passively.” “That’s correct.” “And that message surpasses the boundaries of the individual prophet and functions in a broader, universal way.” “Correct again.” “And in that message there is neither contradiction nor equivocation.” Haida nodded silently. “I don’t get it,” Tsukuru said. “If that’s true, then what’s the value of human free will?” “That’s a
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
No matter how quiet and conformist a person’s life seems, there’s always a time in the past when they reached an impasse. A time when they went a little crazy. I guess people need that sort of stage in their lives.”
“You need to come face-to-face with the past, not as some naive, easily wounded boy, but as a grown-up, independent professional. Not to see what you want to see, but what you must see. Otherwise you’ll carry around that baggage for the rest of your life.
Being alone in two senses of the word was maybe like a double negation of isolation. In other words, it made perfect sense for him, a foreigner, to feel isolated here. There was nothing odd about it at all. The thought calmed him. He was in exactly the right place.
One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony.
