Everything might scatter. You might be right. I suppose it's something we can't easily get away from. People need to feel they belong. To a nation, to a race. Otherwise, who knows what might happen? This civilisation of ours, perhaps it'll just collapse. And everything scatter, as you put it. Kazuo Ishiguro
About This Quote

"Everything might scatter. You might be right. I suppose it's something we can't easily get away from. People need to feel they belong.

To a nation, to a race. Otherwise, who knows what might happen? This civilisation of ours, perhaps it'll just collapse." is an observation about the vagaries of human nature. If you were to ask someone if they would like to live in a world where they were not necessarily bound by race, religion, or nationality, there is no doubt that most would answer in the negative.

Yet, this has become our world today. Are we better off without these labels? Are we better off without the desire to belong? The idea of belonging makes us safer and more secure when we are part of something greater than ourselves. There is something to be said for the beauty in diversity yet this is not necessarily what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he said "Everything might scatter.

You might be right. I suppose it's something we can't easily get away from. People need to feel they belong.

To a nation, to a race."

Source: When We Were Orphans

Some Similar Quotes
  1. There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first,... - John Lennon
  2. Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence. - Unknown
  3. We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss. - Cassandra Clare
  4. Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see ..each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition-- all such distortions within our own egos-- condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add... - Tennessee Williams
  5. We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto liberate us into life. Love arrivesand in its train come ecstasiesold memories of pleasureancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes... - Maya Angelou
More Quotes By Kazuo Ishiguro
  1. I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the...
  2. That was the only time, as I stood there, looking at that strange rubbish, feeling the wind coming across those empty fields, that I started to imagine just a little fantasy thing, because this was Norfolk after all, and it was only a couple of...
  3. What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.
  4. Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?
  5. But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of 'turning points',...
Related Topics