Insignificance

The end of the race is just a temporary marker without much significance. It’s the same with our lives. Just because there’s an end doesn’t mean existence has meaning. An end point is simply set up as a temporary marker, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence. It’s very philosophical—not that at this point I’m thinking how philosophical it is. I just vaguely experience this idea, not with words, but as a physical sensation.

~ Haruki Murakami

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Ideally like stars

Ideals are like stars; You will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like seafaring men on the desert of waters, you choose them as our guides, and following them reach your destiny.

~ Carl Schurz

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Half

Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with half a mind, with a faint heart, and with a lame endeavor.

~ Barrow

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Join us

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.

~ John Lennon

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Beautiful

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.

~ Helen Keller

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Exerting yourself

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: That’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.

~ Haruki Murakami

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Creative work

The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.

~ Mary Oliver

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