Inge > Inge's Quotes

“Books are filled with human thoughts and feelings. People suffering, people who are sad or happy, laughing with joy. By reading their words and their stories, by experiencing them together, we learn about the hearts and minds of other people besides ourselves. Thanks to books, it’s possible to learn not only about the people around us every day, but people living in totally different worlds.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“But Kazu still goes on believing that, no matter what difficulties people face, they will always have the strength to overcome them. It just takes heart.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi

“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.”
― Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun

“I would far prefer to be told simply to go and die. It's straightforward. But people almost never say, "Die!" Paltry, prudent hypocrites!”
― Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun

“If you find it difficult, it's because it contains something that is new to you. Every difficult book offers us a brand-new challenge.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“Don’t hurt anyone. Never bully people weaker than yourself. Help out those in need. Some would say that these rules are obvious. But the truth is, the obvious is no longer obvious in today’s world. What’s worse is that some people even ask why. They don’t understand why they shouldn’t hurt other people. It’s not a simple thing to explain. It’s not logical. But if they read books they will understand. It’s far more important than using logic to explain something. Human beings don’t live alone, and a book is a way to show them that.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“Já nemám rád prázdné mluvení o slovanství, jako nemám vlastenčení. Prosím vás, kolikpak z
našich slavjanofilů dovede aspoň číst rusky, polsky, srbsky? (..) A nač to mluvení: normální člověk nevytrubuje do světa, ţe
miluje své rodiče, svou ţenu, své děti; to se rozumí samo sebou. Kdyţ miluješ svou vlast,
nemusíš o tom mluvit, ale udělej něco kloudného; o nic jiného nejde.”
― Karel Čapek, Talks with T. G. Masaryk

“I wonder why people always expect things from others that they themselves can’t or won’t do.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“Cats are really something. They'll just ignore you half the time, but they seem to know when you're really in need of some comforting.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“Once you become aware of your impending death, you have to make a compromise in accepting the loss of the life you wish you could have led and the reality of your imminent death. Sure, there will always be regrets and broken dreams, but you have to go easy on yourself. Over the last few days, I’ve come to realise that there is certain beauty in those regrets, they are proof of having lived. Maybe I will regrets some of my decisions when the moment comes, but that’s ok, No matter how you slice it, life is full of regrets anyway.
I was never able to be myself completely or live my life exactly how I wanted to, I am not even sure if I ever figure out what exactly being myself and living out my dreams really meant. So I guess I am going to die with all those failures and regrets, all those unfulfilled dreams, all the people I’ve never met, all the things I’ve never tasted and all the places I’ve never been. I am taking all that with me to my grave, and I am ok with that. In the end, I am satisfied with who I am and the life I’ve lived, I am just happy to have been here at all.”
― Genki Kawamura, 世界から猫が消えたなら [Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara]

“To live means: to cry and shout, to love, to do silly things, to feel sadness and joy, to even experience horrible, frightening things... and to laugh.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

“Now that I thought about it, though, I realized that most people actually encourage you to turn bad. They seem to think that if you don't, you'll never get anywhere in the world. And then on those rare occasions when they encounter somebody who's honest and pure-hearted, they look down on him and say he's nothing but a kid, a Botchan. If that's the way it is, it would be better if they didn't have those ethics classes in elementary school and middle school where the teacher is always telling you to be honest and not lie. The schools might as well just go ahead and teach you how to tell lies, how to mistrust everybody, and how to take advantage of people. Wouldn't their students, and the world at large, be better off that way? Redshirt had laughed at me for being simpleminded. If people are going to get laughed at for being simpleminded and sincere, there's no hope. Kiyo never laughed at me for saying anything like what I said to Redshirt. She would have been deeply impressed by it. Compared to Redshirt, she's far and away the superior person.”
― Natsume Soseki, Botchan

“You're always you, and that don't change, and you're always changing, and there's nothing you can do about it.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

“As long as you continue to say the words “one day”, the dream is not over.”
― Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

“Books will always be essential for some people. And bookshops are a place for those people to discover the books that will become important to them. I will never allow bookshops to vanish from this world.”
― Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

“Singles are envious of those who are married, and married couples envy those with children, but people with children are envious of singles. It’s an endless merry-go-round. But isn’t that funny? That each person should be chasing the tail of the person in front of them, when no one is coming first or last. In other words, when it comes to happiness nothing is better or worse—there is no definitive state.”
― Michiko Aoyama, What You Are Looking for is in the Library

“Defeat begins with the fear that one had lost.”
― Kōbō Abe, The Woman in the Dunes