Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined civilization as when people build fences. A very perceptive observation. And it’s true–all civilization is the product of a fenced-in lack of freedom. The Australian Aborigines are the exception, though. They managed to maintain a fenceless civilization until the seventeenth century. They’re dyed-in-the-wool free. They go where they want, when they want, doing what they want. Their lives are a literal journey. Walkabout is a perfect metaphor for their lives. When the English came and built fences to pen in their cattle, the Aborigines couldn’t fathom it. And, ignorant to the end of the principle at work, they were classified as dangerous and antisocial and were driven away, to the outback. So I want you to be careful. The people who build high, strong fences are the ones who survive the best. You deny that reality only at the risk of being driven into the wilderness yourself. Haruki Murakami
About This Quote

In the Garden of Eden, man and woman were free to do as they pleased. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, then regretted it. Then they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. In modern society, people are free to eat from the tree of knowledge but also free to regret it all day long.

They are free to eat from the tree of knowledge but also free to regret that fact all day long. They are free to eat from the tree of knowledge but also free to regret that fact all day long. The horticulture industry has evolved into an industry of reinforcement.

People are free to eat from the tree of knowledge…but also free to regret it all day long!

Source: Kafka On The Shore

Some Similar Quotes
  1. There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love. - Cassandra Clare
  2. Freely we serve Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall. - John Milton
  3. He offered her the world. She said she had her own. - Monique Duval
  4. You are my butterfly and refuse to set you free. - Shannon Hale
  5. From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that... - Arthur Conan Doyle
More Quotes By Haruki Murakami
  1. I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but...
  2. If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.
  3. Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long...
  4. Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star. It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than...
  5. I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once.
Related Topics