Adults constantly raise the bar on smart children, precisely because they're able to handle it. The children get overwhelmed by the tasks in front of them and gradually lose the sort of openness and sense of accomplishment they innately have. When they're treated like that, children start to crawl inside a shell and keep everything inside. It takes a lot of time and effort to get them to open up again. Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were.
Haruki MurakamiBecome like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.
Haruki MurakamiYou canโt look too far ahead. Do that and youโll lose sight of what youโre doing and stumble. Iโm not saying you should focus solely on the details right in front of you, mind you. Youโve got to look ahead a bit or else youโll bump into something. Youโve got to conform to the proper order and at the same time keep an eye out for whatโs ahead. Thatโs critical, no matter what youโre doing.
Haruki MurakamiSomeone once said that nothing costs more and yields less benefit than revenge,โ Aomame said. โWinston Churchill. As I recall it, though, he was making excuses for the British Empireโs budget deficits. It has no moral significance.
Haruki MurakamiLike you're riding a train at night across some vast plain, and you catch a glimpse of a tiny light in a window of a farmhouse. In an instant it's sucked back into the darkness behind and vanishes. But if you close your eyes, that point of light stays with you, just barely for a few moments.
Haruki Murakami