I think I have to try to be a truly good person. As you said, I am an expert consumer, and I don't produce anything. Unlike Uragawa, I couldn't produce anything even if I wanted to. Still, I can become a good person. I can become a good person and create one good person for the world. And I think that if I can just do that, then I might become a person who can create even more than that.

...when the apple first fell, it may have felt no different from having a flash of insight. But what matters came after that. The apple probably fell from a height of, oh, let's say three or four meters, but Newton might have tried to think, Well, what if it were ten meters instead of four? Of course, if the four meters were ten meters, the result would be the same. The apple would fall. Then what if it were fifteen meters? Naturally, it's going to fall, right? And twenty meters? The same. If we gradually increase the height to a hundred meters or two hundred meters, no matter what number of meters we consider, the apple still falls, in accordance with the law of gravity. But let's consider what happens if we increase the height of the apple more and more, until we reach the point where it's thousands or tens of thousands of meters in the air. Eventually the apple gets to the height of the moon. In that case, would the apple fall? As long as gravity is working, certainly we expect it to fall. In fact, it's not just apples, is it? We expect that anything must fall. But what about the moon? The moon doesn't fall, does it?

Human beings are so great that they demonstrate their greatness by recognizing their own misery.

In good health, when nothing is wrong in our bodies, we live our lives almost forgetting that a heart, a stomach, intestines, and all the many other organs are inside us, playing an important role in our everyday lives. However, when something goes wrong and our heart skips or our stomach hurts, then for the first time we think about our own organs and become aware of the problem. When we feel physical pain or suffering, it's because something has gone wrong, and it's thanks to that pain and suffering that we realize that.

In the same way, when a person is living in a way that's not normal for a human being, suffering and hardships of the heart let us know that. So then, thanks to that pain and suffering, we can clearly grasp what a human being should naturally be.

Naturally, pain is not unique to human beings. Even dogs and cats may shed tears if wounded, and when they are lonely, they howl piteously. When it comes to physical pain or hunger or thirst, humans are surely the same as other animals. That's why we experience a keen sense of empathy and feel great affection for other living creatures on the planet, be they dogs, cats, horses, or cows. But that also means that pain alone tells us little about what it means to be truly human. We learn true humanity from a pain that only humans feel, even in the midst of experiencing all the same pain as other living things. So then, what sort of thing is this unique pain so special to humanity?

Even if our bodies have not been injured or starved, people can feel wounded, starving, and thirsty. If our dreams are cruelly dashed, then our hearts are wounded and invisible blood flows. If we must live without kindness and affection, our hearts develop an unquenchable thirst. But among all those miseries, there's one that pierces our hearts most deeply, that wrings the bitterest tears from our eyes. It's the awareness that we have committed a mistake that we can't go back and fix. When we look back on our actions—not in terms of personal benefit but in a moral frame of mind—I'm afraid there's nothing quite so painful as thinking, What have I done? That's it. It's truly painful to admit one's own mistakes. Most people think up any excuse they can to avoid it. However, Copper, when you have made a mistake, to recognize it bravely and to suffer for it is something that in all of heaven and earth, only humans can do.

As long as we are human, we all make mistakes. And then, as long as our conscience doesn't go numb, the knowledge of the mistakes we have made can't help but cause painful thoughts for all of us.

We have the power to decide on our own who we will be. Therefore, we will make mistakes. However— We have the power to decide on our own who we will be. Therefore, we can also recover from mistakes.

Most people slip into a self-interested way of thinking, become unable to understand the facts of the matter, and end up seeing only that which betters their own circumstances.

The things that you feel most deeply, from the very bottom of your heart, will never deceive you in the slightest. And so at all times, in all things, whatever feelings you may have, consider these carefully. If you do this, then someday, somewhere, a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience will leave a deep impression on you, and you will come to understand something that has a meaning that is not just limited to that one moment. That thought will be an idea that is truly your own. To put it a slightly more difficult way, you must make a habit of thinking honestly, with your own experience as a foundation.