"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg." [...] We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called the System. [...] We must not allow the System to exploit us. We must not allow the System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made the System." - Meaning and context.">
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"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg." [...] We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called the System. [...] We must not allow the System to exploit us. We must not allow the System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made the System.

— Haruki Murakami

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets ""Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg." [...] We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called the System. [...] We must not allow the System to exploit us. We must not allow the System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made the System." in the context of "" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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Haruki Murakami

About Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami (ζ‘δΈŠ ζ˜₯ζ¨Ή Murakami Haruki, born 12 January 1949) is a best-selling contemporary Japanese writer. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, both in Japan and internationally, including the World Fantasy Award (2006) and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (2006), while his whole oeuvre garnered the Franz Kafka Prize (2006), the Jerusalem Prize (2009), and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize (2016) among others.