# Quote — Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

> The dowager smiled. “What an interesting person you are!”
>
> Aomame said, “I’m a very ordinary human being. I just happen to like reading books. Especially history books.”
>
> “I like history books too. They teach us that we are basically the same, whether now or in the old days. There may be a few differences in clothing and lifestyle, but there’s not that much difference in what we think and do. Human beings are ultimately nothing but carriers—passageways—for genes. They ride us into the ground like racehorses from generation to generation. Genes don’t think about what constitutes good or evil. They don’t care whether we are happy or unhappy. We’re just a means to an end for them. The only thing they think about is what is most efficient for them.”
>
> “In spite of that, we can’t help but think about what is good and what is evil. Is that what you’re saying?”
>
> The dowager nodded. “Exactly. People have to think about those things. But genes are what control the basis for how we live. Naturally, a contradiction arises,” she said with a smile.

- Author: [Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md)
- Book: [1Q84](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84.md)
- Page: 268
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/1Q84#Book_1_(April-June)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/the-dowager-smiled

## More from this book

> The pursuer’s blind spot is that he never thinks he’s being pursued.

p. 1025 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/the-pursuers-blind.md)

> So he always kept his mouth shut. He kept his ears open and listened closely to whatever anyone else had to say, aiming to learn something from everything he heard. This habit eventually became a useful tool. Through this, he discovered a number of important realities, including this one: most people in the world don’t really use their brains to think. And people who don’t think are the ones who don’t listen to others.

p. 868 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/so-he-always.md)

> Before he had realized it, these exercises had given him the talent to be skeptical about his own self, and he had come to the recognition that most of what is generally considered the truth is entirely relative. Subject and object are not as distinct as most people think. If the boundary separating the two isn’t clear-cut to begin with, it is not such a difficult task to intentionally shift back and forth from one to the other.

p. 913 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/before-he-had.md)