Haruki Murakami Quotes

Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude.

We fear death so profoundly, not because it means the end of our body, but because it means the end of our consciousness - better to be a spirit in Heaven than a zombie on Earth.

I have always been very wary of what would happen when I die. I feel I would die every day, and that thought sometimes made me more aware that I am alive.

I thought that we all were afraid of death, but I've talked to my wife and other people, and they're not afraid of death the way I am. I find that really confusing. I don't like the idea of nothingness - that's terrifying to me.

As far as where I go when I die, the concept that I am simple going to flick out, like a light bulb, to me is not only spiritually impossible to believe, but logically it is laughable - the idea that we simply die and nothing happens.

Who that hath ever been Could bear to be no more? Yet who would tread again the scene He trod through life before?

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.

I remain unconvinced that anything other than rapid decomposition is the fate of my body and mind after death.

And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can't believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa.

I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.

For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living.

Everyone fears the cut of the blade. It doesn't matter after that. I know the spirit survives as there is so much evidence of the survival of the personality in the afterlife.

I do fear death. But what I actually fear is not dying. I mean, true, it will be sad. But I know that there is a better place waiting for me.

Perhaps we don't need these religious concoctions to pillow the fear of death. Just the fact that there is an unknown, and something greater, can bring a feeling of peace. That's enough for me.

The fear of death comes from limited awareness.

I don't believe there's an afterlife - but I don't believe there's an end to life. Consciousness goes beyond the bounds of your body.

The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.

They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing.

I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.

Death is the waiting-room where we robe ourselves for immortality.

Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.

I believe in life after death.

We die, and we do not die.