The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami.

“… I felt something like a pity. I mean, was this really the best this joker could do? Was this all it took to give him such airs of superiority? Could he actually be so satisfied, so happy with himself, for this? It was pathetic.” – The Silence

“But it does happen, right?” he said. “Maybe once, but everyone has that experience. You loathe someone for no reason whatsoever. I’m not the type to have blind hate, but I swear there are people who just set you off. It’s not a rational thing. But the problem is, in most cases, the other guy feels the same way toward you.” – The Silence

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“They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% girl for them. Yes, they believed in a miracle.” – On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning

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“Because believe me, some things I’d like to forget. But the more I try to wipe them away, the more they pop into my mind. You know what it’s like when you’re trying to fall asleep and it only makes you more wide awake? It’s the same thing. I can’t figure it out. I remember things I couldn’t possibly have known. Sometimes it worries me, remembering the past in so much detail — how am I supposed to have room for what’s to come?” – A Slow Boat to China

“There are some things about myself I can’t explain to anyone. There are some things I don’t understand at all. I can’t tell what I think about things or what I’m after. I don’t know what my strengths are or what I’m supposed to do about them. But if I start thinking about these things in too much detail, the whole thing gets scary. And if I get scared I can only think about myself. I become really self-centred, and without meaning to, I hurt people. So I’m not such a wonderful human being.” – A Slow Boat to China

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The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom

I have just finished reading the book, it is one of those books that leaves you awestruck. Don't believe me, please do me favour and read it. ;) I have fallen in love twice with him; first in For One More Day and then, the life-inspiring Tuesdays with Morrie (I cried buckets watching the movie. Wait, I cried in both his books also.) Heh. Although I didn't tear up reading this book, but it taught me a few 'lessons' to carry on in life. 

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"All endings are beginnings. We just don't know it at that time." 

"Strangers are family that you have yet come to know." 

"Sacrifice is part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Because sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing on to someone else."

"Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves."

"People say they “find” love, as if it were an object hidden by a rock. But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man and woman. What people find then is a certain love. And Eddie found a certain love with Marguerite, a grateful love, a deep but quiet love, one that he knew, above all else, was irreplaceable."

"Love, like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive."

“Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end. Love doesn't.

"Each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one."

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